21 Blue PostIt's
by Kiss.My.Sass.181
Summary: With only a bunch of post-it's from her dead mom to guide her, Sakura and her friends embark on a summer long road trip to fufil the tasks set by her mom. Maybe she'll learn to cope with her mom's death and perhaps find a little summer romance?
1. Letting Go

**Hey people! I've decided to start writing a new story ****cause**** I've just gotten a great idea for a new one! ****( it's**** not mentioned on my profile cause I wanted it to be a surprise.**** This story is a bit dark at first, but don't worry, it'll lighten up. Anyways I hope you enjoy it!**

**I don't own Naruto.**

I guess you could say that I've never really understood death-it's not my forte. But then again I don't think that death really is anyone's forte -but I could be wrong.

So when they told me my mother had only a couple of hours left to live and that they had done all they could possibly do, I cried for hours upon hours. And as I held her hand, she told me ever so placidly, "There, there," as she stroked my hair. "It'll be alright. Don't mourn for me. Instead be happy that God has finally decided to end my suffering. And don't forget that dying is a natural part of life-everyone will go eventually. I'm just moving on, to another part of life. And although I won't be here with you in person, I'll always stay with you right here." She said pointing to my heart. "So don't cry Sakura. Don't cry."

But of course I being the most stubborn and disobedient teen on the planet, did I listen to her? Nope. Instead of being happy like my mom had asked, I was sad. Sad, mad, slightly depressed and a bunch of other stupid emotions that humans are forced to have, all balled up into one tight little bundle of emotions. I kept on crying as if I hadn't heard what my mother had said. Like the time when I was 12 and she told me to take a jacket to school because of an upcoming thunderstorm. I said, "yeah, of course," but did I listen- of course not. Instead I bolted out the door without a care in my mind. So when I walked into the house soaked to the bone and sneezing like mad, mom took care of me those 1 and a half weeks while I had pneumonia. And the best was that she didn't even say, "I told you so!" Like most people would have.

That's one of the reasons why I love my mom so much. She's not like anyone else. I totally trust her and could tell her anything from the most stupid things to the extremely important ones. And she would actually listen to me, unlike other adults who just think, "Oh she's just a silly little 16 year old. It doesn't matter whether or not I listen to what she says." Well reality check dude- IT DOES TOO MATTER!! It's us who's gonna run this place one day, so it most definitely matters! So my mom is awesome like that and I totally love everything about her. Which is one of the reasons, why I had such a hard time of letting her go.

The rest of that day at the hospital 2 days ago was a total blur (I know, I know! You must think I'm a horrible daughter to not remember my mother's final day on Earth but my head hurt badly from all the crying.) But I do remember holding her hand, squeezing out whatever life was left in her hand as she said with a faint smile, "I know you'll be strong. Don't cry…I love you Sakura." And as she said that I felt her hand go limp in mind. I did my best (which was pretty suckish mind you) to hold back all the tears I knew were just waiting to start pouring out like a Niagara Falls. Then I whispered in her ear, "Love you too mom." And gave her one last kiss on her cheek as I waited for the doctors who were keeping watch of her heartbeat to come bursting into the room………

So now I'm standing in front of her grave, like I have been all day now since the funeral ended 3 hours ago. I'm still in my all black ensemble and now it's beginning to rain like cats and dogs. But presently I could really care less. Plus my feet seem rooted to the ground somehow. I can practically hear my mom's chiding voice in my head saying, "Sakura! Get out of the rain! You don't want to catch pneumonia again do you?" (And might I add that I'm very susceptible to catching pneumonia?) I probably really should get out of here - it's already dark out, almost 8:30 pm, and it's all wet and murky out. The whole graveyard scene at night is totally cliché, but it's still sorta giving me the creeps. But I still can't seem to leave-as if there's some invisible force pulling me in just waiting for me to turn around and so that it can pop out of nowhere with a great big "BOO!" and scare the living daylights out of me (no pun intended here people.).So I guess I'll just stand here not knowing whether the wetness on my face is my tears or the rain. (I know you're all jealous of my deep, poetic soul…not.)

I suppose all of you people would like to know who you're reading about. Well people at school call me "forehead girl," and occasionally "pinky," or "pink top," but my name's Sakura Haruno. Welcome to my tragic little world. I'm 16 years old and currently a junior at Konoha High in St. Petersburg, Florida (No I do not live in Russia, but the St. Petersburg in the U.S.) but there's about 2 weeks left till summer vacation so I'll be a senior soon. When I was 8 years old, my dad and older brother died in a car accident. Then my 84 year old grandma died a year after that. And finally my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer when I was 12. My mom, who just happened to be my last living relative, was given all the best treatments we could afford. At first, she seemed to be doing pretty well. Then a year ago, things took a turn for the worst. She just kept getting sicker and sicker, practically living in the hospital now, leaving me to get a job to pay the bills and other stuff like that. I always knew that my mom was a fighter-that's why she lasted as long as she did (the doctors predicted she would lose the battle 4 months ago.) but I guess in the end she finally gave up. Anyways I'm thinking now would be a really good time to get out of the rain-it's not like mom's around to take care of me when I get pneumonia again……………………

**Viola! The first chapter completed. Now I know that Konoha is no way in the US (Florida to be exact) but in order for my plans to work I need to twist stuff around. Now I have 2 ideas about how this story will turn out: Either it'll be my Mona Lisa, my Sistine Chapel, my Girl ****With**** a Pearl Earring-in other words my masterpiece****. Or it'll be the death of me-my failure. So I guess we'll ****just wait and ****see.**** Read and review please!**** Adios amigos! **

**PS,**

**In case you're wondering Leonardo DaVinci did the Mona Lisa, Michelangelo did the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome and Johannes Vermeer did the Girl With a Pearl Earring. **


	2. Back to School

**Bon Jour peoples! How's life? I'****m currently on a writing ****high (just**** not on a writing high for Life According to Me-interesting how that works out huh?) right now so here's chapter 2! Enjoy!**

**I don't own Naruto (no duh people!)**

When I woke up the next morning, I think he full impact of my mother's death truly hit me (like getting shot down by a thousand electric volts otherwise known as a thunderbolt to the average mind-hey! Don't hate me cause I'm really smart-sort of…). Plus I realized that I was now an official orphan. I didn't go to school that day-I couldn't. Instead I stayed home in my men's flannel, pinstriped pj's all day long bawling my eyes out as I flipped through old photo albums.

I didn't go to school the next day either, or the next or the next, and so on and so forth. I did however go to school on Friday-pretty pointless I know since it's the end of the week but oh well.

At first when I got into school, all I heard in tiny hushed whispers were, "OMG! Did you hear? Forehead girl's mom died on last week Thursday!" How word spread so quickly I really don't know, but I think it had something to do with my gossip of a friend Ino. But eventually I started to get little sympathetic looks and a couple of people came up and said "I'm so sorry for your loss,"-the usual stuff. All I could do was just nod stiffly and keep my mouth clamped down for fear of letting my emotions get the better of me. The whole keeping my mouth shut and curt little nod was part of my "mask" along with downcast eyes in case a stray tear fell-I hated letting people see me cry. Thankfully my mask held strong- I'm an expert of keeping my emotions bottled up even if it's bad to do so, but sometimes I slip-I'm only human after all.

When I met up with my 8 friends Naruto, Sasuke, Ino, Shikamaru, Neji, Tenten, Hinata, and Kiba , the more emotional ones gave me ginormous hugs and their reassurance. The rest of them said they were really sorry and I knew they meant it. After a while, we began to talk about some random stuff trying to avoid the topic of my mom altogether-which I was very thankful for.

"So guys," Naruto began, "What's everyone doing this summer?" Now there was only next week left, with Friday being the last day. Hinata was the first to answer, "I'm going to camp actually." We all nodded in a "That's cool" kind of way. After everyone spoke, it turned out all of us except for Hinata and Kiba were just gonna hang around home doing nothing.

Naruto, being the oh-so-very happy-go-lucky kind of guy that he is started up another conversation. What it was about I couldn't really say. Instead I was examining my friends. We were all so different: Naruto the ecstatic, fun loving, loud mouth, Shikamaru the extremely lazy genius with the "bored with life" attitude, Kiba the dog loving, punk/skater dude, the stoic, "I'm too good for you," and antisocial Sasuke, Mr. Neji "Don't mess with me or the radness that is my hair," Hyuuga, the shy and very quiet but totally dependable Hinata, Tenten the super cool one who is totally boss, the popular, glamorous, gossiper Ino, and then there's me: the stubborn, extremely misfortunate, pink haired nerd that rounds our little group off. It's surprising that the 9 of us actually get along with each other without being at each other's necks with knives and daggers all the time. But we do have our off days like mo-

"SAKURA!!!" Ino yelled in my face. "HELLOOOO? ANYONE HOME?"

"W-what?" I asked sheepishly. My friends all knew that I was totally zoning on our conversation, another suckish fault of mine.

Ino sighed annoyed and repeated what she had said," _I __said, _'are you getting your permit this summer?'"

"Oh," I said a little downcast. "I forgot about that." Personally I had forgotten about a lot of things what with the death of my mom 8 days ago so my minds sorta jumbled up right now. Just bear with me here.

Ino sighed-again (I've actually just noticed that she does this a lot-sighing I mean.) and said, "Well _I _am. You should really get on that. Neji and Tenten already have their licenses since a year ago and Naruto and Sasuke got their permits while you were gone last week Thursday while you were with your mom at the hosp-OOPS! Oh my God Sakura! I'm so sorry I totally forgot!" Ino exclaimed her hands covering her mouth and her eyes going wide. My friends knew that this was still a soft spot for me, so what Ino had accidentally let slip was like throwing salt on an open wound-I can practically hear the sizzling sounds.

"I am SO incredibly sor-"

"So guys what's it like with a permit?" I asked cutting Ino off and pretending that she hadn't said anything in the first place. Ino just shut her mouth and kept it that way.

"S'okay." Naruto mumbled obviously not wanting to elaborate any further. Sasuke just shrugged.

"Gee, loving the details here guys." I said in sardonic sarcasm. But before I could get a response, the bell rang and everyone-including me,- scampered off to our first period classes, ending the subject at hand………………..

**Super short I know.**** I'm sorry. It's just how I am. Anyways read and review peoples! On to chapter 3! Ciao!**


	3. At the Therapist's Office

**What's up? ****"The ceiling of course!"**** As my totally awesome gym teacher always replies when you ask him that. Okay. I'm over it. ****Moving on now.**** Looks like I'm still on that writing high, so here's ch. 3 coming ****at'cha**

**I most definitely don't own Naruto in any way, shape, or form.**

"It's alright to be depressed Sakura. You've just lost someone important to you. It's perfectly natural." My therapist Miss Lesky said, patting my knee in a way I guess she thought comforting, but I just thought perverting.

"I'm not depressed." I replied blankly (my "mask" was working full time now) while crossing my arms and jerking my knee violently to get her hand off of it. Apparently, Miss Lesky didn't get the hint as she kept her thin, bony hand on my knee. This was slightly aggravating.

I suppose I should explain why I'm here in a stupid therapist's office on a perfectly good Saturday morning at 8:45 am when I could be sleeping, or brooding, or maybe even brooding in my sleep-I'm a very multi-talented person. Well for one thing it was most definitely not _my _idea. My schools principal Lady Tsunade thought it would be a good idea to talk to someone about my mother's death and how it was affecting my life. I objected of course but Tsunade is just as stubborn as I am (perhaps even more?) and PERSONALLY set up an appointment with her own therapist Miss Laura Lesky for me.

I thought, "That's great for you, but you're just wasting yours and my time. There's no way I'm waking up at 8:15 just to see a stupid therapist for an hour. And even if you did set up an appointment it's not like I'll take the time of day to go."

Apparently Tsunade can read minds or something because she then said with a little smirk, "And you'll go to that appointment tomorrow. I'll be coming to pick and drop you off myself." I scowled. Point 1 for Tsunade, zip for Sakura.

Then I thought, "Alright I'll just have you drop me off then after you leave just go walk home."

Amazing mind reading powers in play here people-"And I'll even walk you to the office myself and make sure you get into that office."

Point numero dos for Tsunade, still zilch for me.

And in a last attempt to save myself, "I'll just crawl out the bathroom window or something after you leave." I was totally confident that This thought wouldn't fail me. Apparently I was cocky not confident.

"And I'll tell Laura not to let you out of her sight in case you plan to escape throught the bathroom window or something like that."

Point 3 for Tsunade, Nada for Sakura. (insert little losing music here) and in a robotic voice" Game over." Stick a fork in me, I'm done! I scowled-again.

Tsunade knew she had one because a triumphant smile graced her face. "I'll be over at 8:30." And with that final note she dismissed me.

Having your principal drive you to a therapist's office is not fun. Can you say, "AWKWARD?" So here I am with Miss Lesky's hand patting my knee repeatedly and I'm getting more and more pissed and annoyed by the second.

And that's when I kind of had a fit-actually, fit is an understatement. _Exploded _is more like it. "Get your freaking hand off my knee!" and I jumped up off of my seat. At first Miss Lesky (being the mouse of a woman she is) looked totally taken aback but soon replaced the shock on her face with a broad smile. She then started scribbling furiously on her clipboard. I just glowered at her with obvious distaste.

When she finally looked up from her clipboard, Miss Lesky said to me, "You're clearly frustrated sweetheart! That's quite all right. Just let your emotions all out." She then began to move her hand towards my knee but, with my oh-so-fast reflexes (I wish), I slapped it away before it made contact.

Miss Lesky smiled a weak apologetic smile and gave me a piece of paper to "draw and/or write out my emotions." "Pen?" I asked totally bored and unconvinced that this little activity would actually help me. "Oh! Of course! Oh deary me, let me find one for you." She replied as she got up and began to rummage around her office.

While she did this, I took an opportunity to take a good look around. Miss Lesky was fairly young-in her early 30's but had huge bags under her cloudy gray eyes, which along with her frail looking body, and steely gray streaks in her brown hair, made her look, I dunno, maybe like 70 or something. Her hair was pulled back in an extremely tight bun, so tight that I could practically hear her hair follicles screaming "Save me, save me!" in squeaky, high pitched voices not unlike Alvin and the Chipmunks voices. Her own actual voice sounded like it belonged to a three year old. Her sense of style was very lacking in the means of color and variety. She was wearing a long gray dress that went up to her ankles, with gray stockings, a gray button down sweater and wait for it…GRAY shoes! (Big shocker there huh?) There were three photographs of her on the wall of her office and she was wearing the exact same thing she was wearing right now in all 3 pictures. So either Miss Lesky had an affixation with the color gray, or I was just simply colorblind (which might I add, I am not. So it's obviously the first one.) The only thing that was different about the photo's and her in real life were that in the pictures, she was wearing these really thick eyeglasses-Glad she lost those! And apparently she had been divorced 3 times before, according to Tsunade. In some sense I do feel bad for her…kind of.

After like 10 minutes or so, Miss Lesky finally came back with a pen. I took it with a little, "thanks," and began doodling. At first I was just drawing random shapes on the bottom left corner of the paper, but then something overcame me and I started to draw ferociously. Everything I had been keeping bottled up behind my little "mask" came out in this drawing. I actually had no idea what it was I was drawing, but it had to be something good cause miss Lesky kept taking little peeks and smiling. Either that or it was horrendously horrible.

When I was finally done, I put the pen down and lifted up my paper to see what it was that I had drawn self-consciously. A gasp escaped my lips. Smack in the middle of the paper was a fairly accurate drawing of my mom smiling. And the little random shapes I had drawn previously had become roses-21 of them to be exact. How befitting. Roses were my moms' favorite flower and 21 was her lucky number. That's when I broke down crying. Miss Lesky put her arm around my shoulder, trying to hug me. I let her-surprisingly. "Is she your mother?" she asked. I nodded. "Ahh." Came her reply but said nothing more. We were like that for maybe 6 or 7 minutes till I pulled away and wiped the remaining tears off my face.

"Thanks." I said, blowing my nose on a delicate little pink tissue that she had handed me. "Just doing my job sweetheart." She said as she patted my knee once more. I just glared at the offending body part with visible hatred but said nothing more. After a little while, I said that I should be going. Miss Lesky just nodded, but then remembered something all of a sudden. "Shouldn't wait for Tsunade?"

"Nah. I'll just walk home." I replied. "Well in that case here." Miss Lesky said pulling out a medium sized manila envelope from inside of her sweater and handed it to me. I stuffed it in my pocket without a second glance in the back pocket of my jeans. "Oh and if you ever want to talk, just call me. I'll forget about the payment this time, but next time bring your checkbook!" She added as she gave me her card with a little laugh. I didn't laugh back. Instead I said thanks, walked out the door and threw the card in the nearest garbage bin I could find. "Good riddance Laura Lesky." Then I began my 35 minute walk home…….

**Another chapter completed. Read and review peoples! Sayanora!**


	4. 21 Blue PostIt's

**Okay people. This chapter is where the plot really begins, but it's also going to be really short as well. So sit back, grab a bowl of popcorn and read on! (I just remembered! The super bowls ****going on****! GO GIANTS! ****W****H****OO!)**** Oh! And I've just realized that I keep on switching from present to past tense. Sorry about that…**

**I don't own Naruto.**

It was the next morning that I remembered the envelope that Miss Lesky had given me the day before. I was walking through my empty house when I noticed the envelope on the table by the door exactly where I had left it yesterday, totally untouched. I was bored so I picked it up and stared at it. On the front was my name in big, bold, bubbly letters. I recognized it instantly as my mom's handwriting and immediately tore the envelope open, causing 21 blue post-it's to flutter to the ground. Figures. My mom's lucky number along with her favorite color. I quickly picked them up and put them in numerical order (they were numbered). The first post-it said:

Sakura,

Before you read the rest of these post-it's

make sure that you are completely positive

that you will do what the following post-it's

say and will follow them to a "T". If you don't

think that you can do that then put them

down now, and throw them away. Whatever

you choose, know that I will always love you.

Love,

Mom

I bit my lip and put the post-it's down. She had obviously wrote this before she died, but however Miss Lesky got them is beyond me. I thought about what my mom had said. What if she wants me to do something illegal and stuff? I can't do that but I really want to know what the post-its say. I wasn't sure what to do so I called up all my friends and told them to meet me at the park entrance in 20 minutes.

"What's up Sakura?" Tenten asked me once everyone had arrived. "Yeah. You sounded sorta anxious on the phone and stuff." Kiba asked. I pulled out the envelope with the post-it's. "Everything's fine guys, but check this!" I said showing them the envelope. "Looks like a plain old envelope to me." Shikamaru said lazily as he lied down on a nearby park bench.

"It's from my mom. I think she wrote it before she died." I said pulling out the post-it's. This new info seemed to spark everyone's interest. I took the first post-it and read it aloud.

"Hmm. Interesting." Neji said thoughtfully as he stroked his chin in that "I'm on the verge of a really important breakthrough that'll change all life as we know it, so everyone shut up!" kind of way. "What should I do?" I asked, slumping down on a large rock close by. "Should I go on and read the rest of the post-it's?"

"Well I totally would if I were you!" Naruto said all excited like.

"How about we read them first then help you decide?" Ino asked.

"I shook my head. "I think my mom wants…_wanted, _I mean, me to decide on my own."

"Then what was the point of waking me up from my nap then?" Shikamaru asked, rolling onto his stomach now-he's still on the bench if you're wondering.

"Just to ask your opinions I guess…"I trailed off.

"Okay," Tenten started, "How about we read them just to see what it says and you can decide on your own and we won't try to persuade or dissuade you in any way. Deal?"

I thought it over for a minute, but I eventually gave in. "Deal." I then handed her the other 20 post-it's. I watched as Tenten read each one, betraying no emotion on her face. Then she passed it to Sasuke who read it and passed it to Neji and so on and so forth. Every once in a while I would see a tiny smile on someone's face but I tried to ignore it.

Shikamaru was the last to read it them so when he was done I walked over to him and got the post-it's back. "So….?" I began, but never really finished. "It's your choice Sakura." Hinata said quietly. I nodded and took in a deep breath as I pulled out the other post-it's and began reading……

**And so my good audience I leave you on that little cliff hanger for now. So please read and review. Later alligators! GO GIANTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! KICK THE PAT'S (PATRIOTS) BUTTS!!!!!!!!!!**


	5. Anyone Up For A Road Trip?

**Hey peoples. What is up? Here's the next chapter! WARNING**** It might be even shorter cause this chapter just basically sys what are on the post-it's. So sit back, read and enjoy!**

**I don't own Naruto.**

_Dear Sakura,_

_I'm so glad you decided to take the risk_

_of__ reading the rest of these post-it's. I'm so_

_happy__! I want you to understand however that_

_this__ whole post-it thing, is a long-lasting tradition _

_that__ has been passed down from generation to_

_generation__ of the women in my family. After their _

_mother__ passes away, someone is appointed to hand_

_deliver__ the daughter a letter of some sort (in our case,_

_these__ post-its.) __listing__ a bunch of stuff that the mother_

_wants__ the daughter to do to get over the fact that she _

_isn't__ here anymore. My mother wrote me my letter on _

_a__ crinkled, old napkin, and her mother wrote hers on a _

_roll__ of masking tape (can you imagine how sticky that_

_must__ have been? You could literally tape the letter to _

_your__ forehead or something!) Each person's is unique_

_and__have their own tasks they want their daughter to_

_complete__. I hope you continue this tradition with your _

_girls__ and they continue it with their daughters and so on_

_and__ so forth. Anyways, I've thought up a few tasks for you_

_to__ complete before summer vacation ends. They are as _

_followed_

_Watch the sun rise while hanging upside down_

_from__ a pier in Tallahassee, Florida. (__it's__ only a _

_couple__ of hours away from where we live. And _

_watching__ the sun rise upside down is a lot of fun!_

_Watch the 4__th__ of July fireworks with the one you _

_love__ the most in Raleigh, North Carolina. (__that__ should_

_be__ romantic-or not, but either way, I hear they have _

_beautiful__ firework displays there!)_

_Make a wish on a shooting star on the steps of_

_t__he__ Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C__. (That _

_guy__ is HUGE! Oh, and you can wish for whatever_

_you__ want-Make it good!)_

_Get the whole Rockefeller Ice Rink to yourself in_

_New York City. (I love the city! And I know you've _

_always__ wanted to go to N.Y.C., so I'll put 2 tasks there.)_

_From the highest point you can, drop a penny from_

_The Empire State building in N.Y.C. (This one's my _

_favorite__! I love it, and I think you will too!)_

_Sneak into some rich guys house/mansion, and wait_

_for__ someone to see you there. Then yell, "Oh no! We've been _

_busted__! Drop the loot and let's get __outa__ here!" and run out, _

_in__ Trenton, New Jersey. (I couldn't resist! I suggest you wear_

_all__ black and make sure YOU DON'T GET CAUGHT!!!)_

_Find a farm or some, wide, empty space at midnight and_

_begin__ to yodel and make other weird noises, in Columbus,_

_Ohio. (I love hearing voices echo at night and what better way_

_t__o__ do it than in a different, random state such as Ohio?_

_Eat an authentic__ Philly Cheese Steak, in Philadelphia,_

_no__ duh!) Pennsylvania. (I know not as exciting as the other_

_ones__ but all the one's we've had are all cheap imitations.)_

_Capture fireflies in clear plastic cups at night in Wilmette,_

_Chicago. (Fireflies are cool. You'll be at this forever though!_

_Don't forget to release them afterwards though!)_

_Walk into some random place with food and yell, "food fight!"_

_all__ of a sudden and see what happens, in Frankfurt, Kentucky. _

_(I remember in high school, we would have food fights like every _

_other__ day. My mom would hate having to wash all the grease off_

_my__ clothes all the time.)_

_Before you leave on this trip, plant a cherry cordial pit in the_

_ground__. Ask a neighbor to water it for you while you're gone._

_When you come back, (if you've been gone long enough,), there _

_should__ be a pretty cherry tree growing there.__this__ one and the _

_rest__ are really just things to be remembered by and to remember_

_this__ trip.)_

_For every place you visit, write your name somewhere where_

_people__ can see it.(what better way to be remembered?)_

_Fill a bag with soil from our house and for everyplace you visit_

_sprinkle__ the soil on the ground. Also, take another bag, and fill_

_it__ with soil from the places you visited. When you come back, _

_spill__ all the soil out, and plant a cherry blossom in the different soils._

_Okay. So those are the 13 things I want you to do. You can _

_complete__ them in any order you like but you must do all of them._

_You can bring as many people as you want with you. Make sure,_

_to__ take lots of pictures and stuff. Have fun sweetheart!_

_Loving you always,_

_Your mom._

I could feel a few tears at the corners of my eyes, but willed them to go away. Seeing my mom's handwriting and hearing her voice in my head was too much for me to handle. But I did-somehow. I then lifted my head up to my friends and asked, "So who's ready for the ultimate road trip?"…..

**Another chapter done.**** Hope you liked it! Read and review! Later alligators!**


	6. The Adventure Begins!

**Bon****soir peoples! How's life? Good I hope. Few points I forgot to mention last chapter. Thanks to Flute****Faerie for the 2 ideas for the tasks to be done in New York-I really love the one with the penny! Also, if you noticed, or maybe you haven't but one of the tasks is in ****Wilmette****, Illinois, which just happens to be where Fall Out Boy is from-Yes, I am the crazed, totally obsessed fan here! Anyways that's really it. On with ch.6!**

**I don't own Naruto.**

The last week of school went by pretty quickly. Everyone had agreed to come with me on the trip, so that was fun to talk about at school…sort of. No, actually, it kind of got on my nerves. (If you were here you would totally be able to get the sarcasm dripping from my voice) I mean all I would here would be road trip this and road trip that. What? We've run out of words in the English language and all we can say is, "road trip, road trip, road trip!" If so, someone please inform me, cause I'm out of the loop here (I love that expression-"out of the loop" I mean. My mom does too…._did._

Anyways, the 9 of us decided to all bring food (canned or bag stuff obviously, in case we don't like what there is to eat at the various places, or we just get hungry along the way and there isn't a gas station or something for miles to come.), a few different pairs of clothes (in case something happens like…oh, I dunno…we fall in a pool or something…the clothes doesn't really matter.), maps (no duh here people!), and of course the most important thing…MULA! (Hey, if we didn't have cash, we wouldn't be able to go or do anything really.)

All of us are bring about $300 each (is that too much or too little?) so all together we have like $27,000 (insert those little whistle sounds here – not like a cat call or anything but more like an "Oh my gosh! That's a lot of blah, blah, blah!". That kind of whistle) so we should have enough.

Naruto and Sasuke are in charge of getting us something to drive that the 9 of us can all fit in, so no- we won't have a nice, red convertible that is totally cliché for road trips. Instead I guess we're going to have to ride in a 4 by 4 or something big and spacious- like those cars you see in all those ridiculous commercials with some crazy guy yelling, "BUY THIS NEW (insert car brand here) RIGHT NOW! FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY, YOU'LL GET 10 OFF! THAT'S RIGHT! 10 OFF. SO VISIT YOUR LOCAL CAR DEALER TODAY!" Yeah. Those kind of cars. Naruto, Sasuke, Neji, and Tenten are all going to take turns driving seeing as how they are the only ones with licenses.

All week I've been packing and it's now currently Friday afternoon- otherwise known as the last day of my life as a junior high schooler! (Actually school let out 2 hours ago.) What incredible fun…NOT! I'll be a senior next year so that should be cool I guess. Today wasn't significant in any way-actually, it was just like any other day except it was all really…ugh! I know, as a full fledged teen, you're supposed to hate school and love the last day, but I'm totally _not _that kind of "full fledged teen." I actually kind of enjoy school to some degree (that "some" isn't all that big though, mind you), plus the last day of school, all the girls are all so teary and like, "OMG! I'll totally miss you!" The whole mushiness of the situation is perturbing. (Dictionary definition- Perturb-1. Disturb somebody, 2. Render something into state of disorder, and whooped-dingle-do, number 3. Cause something to undergo perturbation.-isn't that a fun word, perturbation I mean? Any who, I'm kind of favoring definition numero tres, but numero uno is the definition that best fits in my sentence.)

Oh, I'm getting sidetracked again. Just bear with me a moment here people….Right! I was saying how I was packing, correct? Yep, that's correct. As I was saying, I've been packing all week for this trip and I guess I'm kind of excited for it. The nine of us are supposed to meet up by the empty parking lot down town at 7:30. Currently, it's 6:29, so I've got like an hour or so.

I've done all the major stuff like recopy the post-it's onto a piece of paper as a backup copy-if I just threw away the post-it's after rewriting them, this little trip wouldn't be as meaningful to me. All that's left is to fill the bag with dirt (as my mom so interestingly suggested) and plant the cherry cordial pit. In case you're wondering, a cherry cordial is a chocolate covered cherry- sweet huh? I've already asked Miss Gladdis, (my withering 82 year old next door neighbor with a kind heart) to water the seed for me while I'm gone. Now I know what you're going to say, "How could you make an old lady do work for you every day?" Well chillax (love that word too, and so _**did **_she. "She" as in my mother. I notice we like a lot of the same things…just a random tidbit of my overly depressing life). Miss Gladdis _insisted _to water it for me since she loves gardening and used to own a flower shop when she was younger. I wasn't so sure if she was up to it, but I couldn't let Miss Gladdis down-that's one thing you don't want to do. Miss Gladdis is totally emotional and will get all moody and sour like if she doesn't get her way. So I being the totally nice person that I know I am(I've been told on many occasions that I am an "exceedingly enjoyable person", so ha!), I agreed to having Miss Gladdis water the seed for me.

Now all that's left is to actually eat a cherry cordial, plant it, and tell Miss G. where it is. I'd better go do that now actually. So I get up from the ground, walk over to the kitchen, get out the box of cherry cordials that are stored away in our cabinet (mom aime faire these. "Aime faire "means to love something, for all you non-French speaking people out there.), and pop one in my mouth. Usually, I love the taste-how the chocolate just melts in my mouth, before the sweetness of the cherry comes in to play. But now, while I eat this cordial, all I can taste are bittersweet memories of hours of my mom and me devouring entire boxes of them at a time. It's funny how something like that changes so suddenly isn't it?

I actually really don't have time to brood, or sulk, or brood and sulk (remember those amazing multi-tasking skills of mine?) over stupid cherry cordials and the fact that they're giving me oh-so- happy memories of my mom. Frankly, it's just too much for me to handle right now. I mean, I've let my mask slip since 'm at home all by my lonesome (not that I mind-the solitude is actually kind of nice and inviting) but that just doubles my chance of breaking out in tears-which I can't have right now because I've got to get going pretty soon, so suck it up Sakura. Suck it up!

I sigh. I've been really stressed out lately and I must look a terrible sight-I haven't slept in days due to anxiety and worry over the upcoming trip, so there must be bags under my eyes and my actual eyes must be bloodshot or something-I wouldn't know, I've been avoiding mirrors for some time now. Why? I don't know actually. There's just something uncomforting about staring at myself currently. It bothers me and makes me feel guilty for my mother's death somehow-like she felt horrible or something at having to leave me all alone, an orphan (she knew I would NEVER go to an orphanage. "Over my dead body!" was my reply I believe, when my social worker asked me that question.) to pay back her debts and all those overwhelming bills. Or maybe I'm just going crazy. Perhaps I really _do _need Laura Lesky and her oh-so-annoying knee pats-NO! What am I saying!? Laura Lesky is coo-coo! Maybe even more than me?... Argh! I'm doing it again! (Getting sidetracked I mean) Okay, stick to the subject at hand! Where was I…not sleeping, right.

And once again, _as I was saying, _I've just been preoccupied with other stuff. Don't ask me what though because it's too overwhelming. I should probably be going to Miss Gladdis now before I have to meet everyone soon……………

"Hey guys!" I yelled over to my friends once I got to our meeting place, half an hour later, dragging my bag of the random stuff I shoved into it earlier. I had been running to meet them on them time, so my face was totally flushed and I was sweating like…I dunno, something that sweats a lot (Sorry, my big bag of wit and awesome comebacks seems to be thinning a bit so that's the best I've got until I get a refill.). _Which, _might I add is completely Miss Gladdis' fault for keeping me so long and forcing a gigantic plate of chocolate chip cookies –not that I complained or anything –and a tall glass of milk along with it, on me.

"What took you so long?" Ino hollered impatiently from across the lot as I made my way over.

"Sorry." I said doubling over and panting from all the running. When I stopped and finally stood erect, I noticed that Naruto and Sasuke weren't here.

"Hey guys, where's Naruto and Sasuke?" I asked them.

"We're right here!" Naruto yelled out from the window of an enormous red and white hauling truck, with the writing "Hudson and Co.: Hauling you're goods since 1793." in red fancy script against the white paint of the truck.

Naruto parked the truck and jumped down from it, grinning ear to ear, obviously proud of his achievement in acquiring something for us to drive. Sasuke had a look on that said "The big stupid white truck was SO not _my _idea."

I looked on with horror. "Naruto, Sasuke! What's with the hauling truck? When I said get something for us to all fit in, I didn't mean to steal some poor guy's job!"

"Hey!" Naruto said defensively. "What's makes you think I _stole _this truck huh?"

_Flashback:_

_"Come on Sasuke!" Naruto pleaded.__ They were hiding behind some bushes at a gas station and were waiting for the driver of the truck to come back from the bathroom. _

_"No." Sasuke replied flatly._

_"Oh come on! How else are we supposed to find a car big enough for the 9 of us?" Naruto asked._

_"Uh here's an idea: How about the car dealership? We could ask them to borrow a truck that's big enough."_

_Naruto looked confused. "You can do that?"_

_"When you've got connections you can." Sasuke said. His uncle owned the car place actually and could get one for free if he wanted._

_Naruto just pondered this new information with obvious glee displayed on his face._

_Sasuke looked on and muttered under his breath, "Idiot."_

_After a while Naruto stopped once the guy who drove the truck came back and revved up the engine. "Please! If you do this it would make Sakura really happy!"_

_Sasuke pretended he didn't hear that last part about Sakura. "Fine, fine. Just stop bothering me."_

_Naruto smiled. "Okay, you know what to do right?"_

_"Yeah, yeah. I go up in front of the truck, pretend to faint. Then the driver should get out and see if I'm okay, which is when you'll sneak up from behind, get into the truck and drive away, and I'll catch up." Sasuke repeated._

_"Okay, good! Now go!" Naruto yelled._

_Sasuke got up grudgingly, and began his performance. Sasuke staggered in front of the driver who was watching Sasuke confused. "Oh, oh!" Sasuke moaned, clutching his forehead. "I don't feel so good!" Then he ever so dramatically dropped to the ground._

_Naruto snickered from his spot. "Whoa!" The truck driver said as he climbed down from the truck. "You alright buddy?" Sasuke just moaned, which was Naruto's cue. Naruto ran up, into the truck and started the engine. The driver didn't notice. _

_"Closer." Sasuke whispered to the driver who obeyed like in those sappy movies where the dude's about to die and __asks__ the other dude to come closer._

_"Closer." Sasuke said again. Now the driver's ear was directly over Sasuke's mouth. "Yes? What is it?"_

_At first Sasuke didn't respond then he smirked. "You're being truck-jacked!" he yelled in the driver's ear._

_"Huh?" The driver pulled away and turned around to see Naruto driving away__ with his truck. Naruto was whooping and punching his fist in the air. "SUCKER!!" Naruto yelled._

_Sasuke got up and began to run towards the truck. Once close enough, he jumped onto it and got in the passenger seat._

_"HEY! YOU KIDS COME BACK HERE WITH MY TRUCK!" The truck driver yelled angrily after them as he began to chase them but soon gave up knowing the situation was futile. "Damn it!" He yelled as he threw down his trucker hat onto the dirty road and stomped on it. "There goes another truck!"….._

_And flashback._

"Uh-huh." I said crossing my arms. "Sure you didn't."

Naruto just sulked.

I shook my head. "Come on guys! Let's go!" I said as I climbed into the stolen truck myself, getting ready for what would probably be the most exciting adventure of my life……

**And there it is. I thought this chapter wasn't all that great- it felt sort of jumbled up to me but whatever. Read and review peoples! Ciao!**


	7. A Medley of Music

**Bonsoir everyone.**** Sorry I took so long to update. I've actually been busy for a change-not just pure laziness! It's amazing really. Anyways, here is chapter 7! Sit back, relax, and read! Oh and a warning to you all-this chapter is a filler. Actually, all the chapters in-between their points of ****interests(****when they're driving on the road) will be fillers, so**** be ready for a lot of '****em**** And most of this chapter will be song lyrics.**

**I don't own Naruto or any of the songs they listen to on the radio.**

"Are we there yet?" Naruto whined after 30 minutes of driving. It took 4 hours and 33 minutes to get to Tallahassee from St. Petersburg (I mapquested it-you know, like _googled__ it_, but except I _mapquested__ it._) so we still had 4 hours and 3 minutes to go-if traffic was good that is.

I sighed from my seat on the floor of the back of the truck. "No Naruto. You should even know this yourself cause _you're _the one who's driving-not me!"

Naruto sighed impatiently. "Well how much longer?"

"4 hours and wait for it…2 minutes." Tenten said from her seat on the ground beside Neji.

"Ugh!!!" Naruto moaned.

"What?" Sasuke asked from the shotgun seat besides Naruto.

"I don't think I can drive that long! I'll probably fall asleep at the wheel!" Naruto commentated.

"Well when you get tired either Neji, Sasuke, or Tenten will take over." I suggested. But apparently, I was wrong because Neji then said, "Actually Sakura, we've got it all figured out. Every 2 hours we will switch drivers so we can all rest."

"Oh…okay." I said with a sigh. In a way, I really couldn't believe that I, Sakura Haruno was actually doing this. Going on a wild goose hunt around the U.S. with only a bunch of post-it's for direction. It just didn't seem possible. I'm probably the most un-spontaneous person you will EVER meet and I totally, absolutely HATE change. So something like this is very _un_like me. But hey, I might actually enjoy this…might.

I pulled out the post-it's from the back pocket of my jeans and looked them over. I had planned out everything accordingly(see my un-spontaneousness?): If we left St. Petersburg at around 8 oh clock-which we did- and had about a 30 minute leeway for traffic and other things that would make us stop along the way, and we had about 4 hours and 33 minutes to drive, we should actually get to Tallahassee by 1:03 in the morning-leaving about 4 and a half hours till sunrise at 5:30 (usually it would be 6:00 but remember that daylight savings is over people). So that was perfect and all ready to go, but what do we do on the way there? I mean talking is great and all but eventually you run out of things to talk about. iPod's are cool too but since it'll be a while till I actually get to recharge mine again, I'm gonna save my blue mini for the longer trips-like the one to Frankfurt or Wilmette let's say. We tried playing cards for a while but the game Royal Egyptian is a bitch on the hands, you can only play spit with two people, B.S. isn't as fun as Royal Egyptian, and Go Fish and War go on for like… ever. Plus, an hour into the drive, Naruto started whining like crazy.

"I'm tired! Ugh! Someone take over for me…PLEASE!"

"No. You've still got half an hour to go before I take over."

Of course Naruto being the type of person that he is kept on complaining then all of a sudden, Ino's phone began to ring and coincidentally her ringtone just happened to be:

_Got you where you wanna go if you know what __I__ mean_

_Got a ride that smoother than a __limosine_

_Can you handle the curves? _

_Can you run all the lights?_

_If you can baby boy then we can go all night_

_Cos I'm 0 to 60 in three point five_

_Baby you got the keys-_

_Now shut up and drive_

_(drive, drive, drive)_

_Shut up and drive_

_(drive, drive, drive)_

Yep, Rihanna's song "Shut Up and Drive." We all couldn't help but laugh at the coincidence. "You should listen to Rihanna Naruto. Very befitting ringtone, Ino." Tenten said between laughs. "Thanks." Ino replied as she answered her cell.

I looked at Naruto. He was laughing too. I smiled.

"Okay, I think I'm gonna turn on the radio now guys." Naruto said.

"Wh-what?" Shikamaru asked groggily as he rubbed his eyes, stretched and yawned, waking up from his nap.

"Nothing. " Neji said.

Naruto turned on the radio and as he flicked through the stations, I heard bits and pieces of songs.

"Stop!" Ino yelled out all of a sudden. "This is our song guys!" she said to Tenten, Hinata and I. I listened and couldn't help but smile. It _was _our favorite song-or at least it was till my mom died.

_**"Love Song"**__** by Sara Bereilles**_

_****__Head under water_

_And they tell me to breathe easy for a while_

_The breathing gets harder, even I know that_

_You made room for me but it's too soon to see_

_If I'm happy in your hands_

_I'm unusually hard to hold on to_

_Blank stares at blank pages_

_No easy way to say this_

_You mean well, but you make this hard on me_

_I'm not gonna write you a love song__'cause you _

_asked for it__'cause you need one, you see_

Ino was now singing at the top of her lungs-practically yelling. Ino didn't exactly have the best voice in the world (a nice way of saying she sounded like a frog was stuck in her throat) but she still kept on singing. Soon Tenten and Hinata joined in and they were waiting for me to start singing as well. Personally I wasn't in the mood for singing but since I'm not one to disappoint my friends I started to sing quietly.

_I'm not gonna write you a love song__'cause you tell me it's_

_Make or break in this_

_If you're on your way_

_I'm not gonna write you to stay_

_If all you have is leaving I'm gonna need a better_

_Reason to write you a love song today_

_I learned the hard way_

_That they all say things you want to hear_

_And my heavy heart sinks deep down under you and_

_Your twisted words,__Your help just hurts_

_You are not what I thought you were_

_Hello to high and dry_

_Convinced me to please you_

_Made me think that I need this too_

_I'm trying to let you hear me as I am_

Now I was singing full swing. I don't know why I love this song so much but I really do. It makes me all happy and giddy inside…oh God! That line was really gay!

_I'm not gonna write you a love song__'cause you _

_asked for it__'cause you need one, you see_

_I'm not gonna write you a love song__'cause you tell me it's_

_Make or break in this_

_If you're on your way_

_I'm not gonna write you to stay__I_

_f all you have is leaving I'm gonna need a better_

_Reason to write you a love song today_

_Promise me that you'll leave the light on_

_To help me see with daylight, my guide, gone__'cause I believe there's a way you can love me_

_Because I say__I won't write you a love song__'cause you asked for it__'cause you need one, you see_

_I'm not gonna write you a love song__'cause you tell me it's make or break in this_

_Is that why you wanted a love song__'cause you asked for it__'cause you need one, you see_

_I'm not gonna write you a love song__'cause you tell me it's make or break in this_

_If you're on your way_

_I'm not gonna write you to stay_

_If your heart is nowhere in it_

_I don't want it for a minute_

_Babe, I'll walk the seven seas when I believe that_

_There's a reason to_

_Write you a love song today_

The song ended and we sat there smiling like lovesick fools. "Okay. Now that the girly song is over, how about something a little more hardcore?" Kiba asked as he got up to change to station and cranked up the volume to max as Linkin Park came on.

"Hell yeah!" Naruto said. "I love this song!"

"Love Linkin Park, _period!_" Kiba yelled getting hyped up.

_**"Given Up" by Linkin Park**_

_Wake in a sweat again_

_Another day's been laid to waste_

_In my disgrace_

_Stuck in my head again _

_Feels like I'll never leave this place_

_There's no escape_

_I'm my own worst enemy_

_I've given up..._

_I'm sick of feeling_

_Is__ there nothing you can say?_

_Take this all away_

_I'm suffocating!_

_Tell me what __the fk__ is wrong with me!_

Now it was the guys turn to rock out to the song. While Kiba and Naruto were singing along with Linkin Park, Neji, Sasuke, and Shikamaru were head-banging along to the beat. Not to say that I didn't like this song- I actually love this song as well but it was the guys turn to spazz out-or at least Naruto and Kiba. Actually, it was amazing that Naruto could still rock out while watching the road but I guess he has hidden talents that I don't know about.

_I don't know what to take_

_Thought I was focused but I'm scared_

_I'm not prepared_

_I hyperventilate_

_Looking for help somehow somewhere_

_And no one cares_

_I'm my own worst enemy_

_I've given up..._

_I'm sick of feeling_

_Is__ there nothing you can say?_

_Take this all away_

_I'm suffocating!_

_Tell me what __the fk__ is wrong __with me!_

_GOD!_

_Put me out of my misery_

_Put me out of my misery_

_Put me out of my..._

_Put me out of my fking misery!_

_I've given up_

_I'm sick of feeling_

_Is__ there nothing you can say?_

_Take this all away__I_

_'m suffocating!_

_Tell me what __the fk__ is_

_Wrong with me!_

With the end of the song came…

_"__**I Don't Wanna Be In Love**__**" by **__**Good Charlotte**_

_She's going out to forget they were together_

_All__ that time he was taking her for granted_

_She wants to see if there's more__than he gave she's looking for_

"Love this song!" Tenten and, Naruto, and I yelled simultaneously. We turned to look at each other and smiled. Then we started singing at the top of our lungs.

_He calls her up_

_He's __trippin__ on the phone now_

_He doesn't want her out there__And alone now_

_He knows she's __movin__ it_

_Knows she's using it_

_Now he's losing it_

_She don't care_

_Everybody put up your hands_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_Feel the beat now_

_If you've got nothing left_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_Breakin__' up now_

_You've got a reason to live_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_Feelin__' good now_

_Don't be afraid to get down_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_He was always giving her attention_

_Looking hard to find the things she mentioned_

_He was dedicated_

_But most suckers hate it_

_That girl was fine_

_But she didn't appreciate him_

_She calls him up_

_She's tripping on the phone now_

_He had to get up_

_And he __ain't__comin__ home now_

_He's __tryin__ to forget her__T_

_hat's how we come with him_

_When he first met her_

_When they first got together_

_Everybody put up your hands_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_Feel the beat now_

_If you got nothing left_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_Breakin__' up now_

_You got a reason to live_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_Feelin__' good now_

_Don't be afraid to get down_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_To the beat (x3)_

_You got nothing to lose_

_Don't be afraid to get down_

_We break up_

_It's something that we do now_

_Everyone has got to do it sometime_

_It's okay, let it go_

_Get out there and find someone_

_It's too late to be __trippin__' on the phone here_

_Get off the wire_

_You know everything is good here_

_Stop what you're __doin_

_You don't wanna ruin_

_The chance that you got to__find a new one_

_Everybody put up your hands_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_Feel the beat now_

_If you got nothing left_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_Breakin__' up now_

_You got a reason to live_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_Feelin__' good now_

_Don't be afraid to get down_

_Say I don't wanna be in love_

_I don't wanna be in love_

_Nooo_

_Noooo_

_Now you know what to do, so come on __feelin__' good_

"Okay, I get to choose a station next" Hinata said getting up to change the station. "Yes!" Hinata said as the next song started playing.

_**"Bubbly" by Colbie****Caillat**_

_I've been awake for a while now_

_You've got me feelin' like a child now'_

_Cause every time I see your bubbly face_

_I get the tingles in a silly place_

_And it starts in my toes_

_And I crinkle my nose_

_Wherever it goes_

_I always know_

_That you make me smile_

_Please stay for a while now_

_Just take your time_

_Wherever you go_

Ino started singing with Hinata and soon so were Tenten and I. "This is like a karaoke session." I said over the music.

_The rain is falling on my window pane_

_But we are hiding in a safer place_

_Under covers staying dry and warm_

_You give me feelings that I adore_

_And it starts in my toes_

_Makes me crinkle my nose_

_Wherever it goes_

_I always know_

_That you make me smile_

_Please stay for a while now_

_Just take your time_

_Wherever you go_

_What am I gonna say_

_When you make me feel this way_

_I just __mmmmm_

_And they start in my toes_

_Makes me crinkle my nose_

_Wherever it goes_

_I always know_

_That you make me smile_

_Please stay for a while now_

_Just take your time_

_Wherever you go_

_I've been asleep for a while now_

_You tuck me in just like a child now'_

_Cause every time you hold me in your arms_

_I'm comfortable enough to feel your warmth_

_And it starts in my soul_

_And I lose all contro_

_lWhen you kiss my nose_

_The feeling shows'cause you make me smile baby_

_Just take your time now_

_Holdin' me tight_

_Wherever wherever wherever you g__o_

_Wherever wherever wherever you go _

_wherever you go_

_I always know_

_'Cause you make me smile_

_Even just for a while_

The song ended and Hinata sighed. "That's my all time favorite song." I smirked. I couldn't help but notice that Hinata was staring at Naruto the whole time she was singing this song.

"Alright, next song." Neji said as he changed the station.

_**"Thnks Fr Th****Mmrs" by Fall Out Boy**_

_I'm gonna make you bend and break_

_ (it sent you to me without wings)_

_Say a prayer, but let the good times roll_

_In case God doesn't show_

_ (let the good times roll, let the good times roll_

_)And I want these words to make things right_

_But it's the wrongs that make the words come to life_

_Who does he think he is?_

_If that's the worst you've got, better put your fingers back to the keys_

"OMG!!!!" Ino squeled. "I ABSOLUTELY ADORE Fall Out Boy! Pete is sooo hot!"

I laughed. Ino could be such a fan girl sometimes, but that didn't stop all of us from singing.

_One night and one more time_

_Thanks for the memories_

_Even though they weren't so great_

_He tastes like you only sweeter_

_One night yeah and one more time_

_Thanks for the memories_

_Thanks for the memories_

_See he tastes like you only sweeter_

_Ohhhhhh_

_Been looking forward to the future_

_But my eyesight is going bad_

_In this crystal ball_

_It's always cloudy except for (except for_

_When you look into the past _

_(look into the past)_

_One night stand. (One night stand, off!)_

_One night and one more time_

_Thanks for the memories_

_Even though they weren't so great_

_He tastes like you only sweeter_

_One night yeah one more time_

_Thanks for the memories_

_Thanks for the memories_

_See, he tastes like you only sweeter_

_ohhhh_

And at this part Naruto snickered at the innuendo of the song, being so immature that he is. I rolled my eyes and sang this part a little bit louder.

_(They say) I only think in the form of crunching numbers_

_In hotel rooms, collecting page-six lovers _

_Get me out of my mind_

_Get you out of those clothes_

_I'm a line away_

_From getting you into the mood (wa-ooooohhh)_

_One night and one more time_

_Thanks for the memories_

_Even though they weren't so great_

_He tastes like you only sweeter_

_One night yeah one more time_

_Thanks for the memories_

_Thanks for the memories_

_See, he tastes like you only sweeter_

_One night and one more time (one more night, one more time)_

_Thanks for the memories_

_Even though they weren't so great (even though they weren't so great)_

_He tastes like you only sweeter_

_One night yeah one more time (one more night, one more time)_

_Thanks for the memories (for the memories)_

_Thanks for the memories (for the memories)_

_See, he tastes like you only sweeter_

_Ohhhh_

_"_Oh how I love Fall Out Boy." Ino sighed as the song ended and the next one began.

_**"Who Knew" by Pink**_

_You took my hand_

_You showed me how_

_You promised me you'd be around_

_Uh huh_

_That's right_

_I took your words_

_And I believed_

_In everything_

_You said to me_

_Yeah huh_

_That's right_

I froze at the sound of Pink's voice coming in from the speaker. Don't get me wrong. I love this song-or at least I used to love this song but it couldn't help but remind me of my mom. Especially the chorus.

_If someone said three years from now_

_You'd be long gone_

_I'd stand up and punch them out_

_Cause they're all wrong_

_I know better_

_Cause you said forever_

_And ever_

_Who knew_

By now I could feel little pinpricks at the edge of my eyes where tears threatened to fall. No one else seemed to notice that I wasn't singing along. I turned and caught Sasuke's eye and he seemed to notice my discomfort.

"Hey guys, maybe we should change the song?" Sasuke said over the music.

"Why should we-OH!" Ino exclaimed, catching on as she looked at me.

"Right!" Kiba said as he hurried to change the station.

Phew. I've saved face in front of my friends and managed not to let my mask fall. Joy.

Just then the chorus to Paris Hilton's song "Stars Are Blind" came on.

_Even though the gods are crazy_

_Even though the stars are blind_

_If you show me real love baby_

_I'll show you mine_

_I can make it nice and naughty_

_Be the devil and angel too_

_Got a heart and soul and body_

_Let's see what this love can do_

_Maybe I'm perfect for you_

_Ohh_

_ohh_

_o__hh_

"Oh my God!" Neji screamed. "Turn this crap off!"

"My ears, my ears!" Tenten said covering her ears.

"Aahh! Paris Hilton sucks!" Kiba said, turning the radio off.

"Thank God!" Sasuke said.

And even though all my friends and I are completely different, we all shared one thing in common: our hate and disgust towards Paris Hilton.

"Who in their right mind would even think about signing Paris Hilton for a record deal?" I asked, my mask getting back in place.

"I have no idea." Hinata said.

We decided not to turn the radio back on for fear of another Paris Hilton hit…………

**And there you have it. I'm sorry. I couldn't resist the urge to put even one ****Fall ****Out**** Boy song in the chapter. But I did put a lot of my other favorite songs in there like ****Given**** Up, I Don't Wanna Be in Love, Bubbly, and Love Song. Shut Up and Drive is pretty good too (did you know that Fall Out Boy does it with Rihanna? It's them playing the electric guitars and if you listen carefully to the chorus you can hear Patrick's voice in the background**** underneath Rihanna's.) ****but**** I absolutely hate Stars are Blind and Paris Hilton…..**

**Read and review. ****Auwfvierdersen****! (Good bye in German, but I don't think I spelled it right…)**


	8. Painting the Town Red

**Sorry for the delay. I've been uber lazy and a little bus plus I'm at a lack of inspiration for both this story and Life According to Me so yeah…**

**I don't own Naruto.**

**You're probably wondering where the chapter is. Well…..**

**APRIL FOOLS!! Muhahaha! I'm evil aren't I? –Sticks out tongue- **

**Scroll down if you please….**

**Gotcha! I'm not **_**that **_**evil. But yeah it is April Fool's Day so I might as well prank my readers and such, though the chapter will most likely be short cause I wanna post this tonight while it's still April 1****st**** and not make it longer and saving it for tomorrow so yeah.….**

By the time we reached St. Petersburg, we were all cranky and tired- including me. "What time is it?" I asked my friends with a yawn.

"1:33." Tenten said, checking her watch.

I sighed. We were 30 minutes off. _So much for everything being accordingly planned._ I thought. "Come on guys-we should find a place to crash till sunrise." I suggested to Sasuke who was currently driving slowly through the streets of St. Petersburg.

"Sure, but I think we should park by the beach first." Sasuke said looking at the map as he began to drive down to a local beach.

"Sure thing." I said, not really caring. Once Sasuke had parked in the parking lot, he unlocked the doors and we all came out, stretching our limbs from the long drive.

Being past midnight, the beach was completely deserted. I looked at the sign posted on the fence separating the parking lot from the sand. It read: Rocky Beach hours: 6:00 am to 12:00 am. NO EXCEPTIONS. NO TRESSPASSING.

I bit my lip warily. The beach was closed and if we were to go in right now, that would be trespassing. "As you all know, I am not one for spontaneity and trespassing is not something I'd like to do just right now so I think we should all just skip this one and head on out to the next city. It is only June 21st so if we leave now we can stop in other cities before heading over to Raleigh for the 4th of July."

They all looked at me if I was crazy. "You can't just do that Sakura!" Naruto yelled. "I didn't drive that _whole_ way-"

"_I _drove half the way here too Naruto." Sasuke pointed

Naruto scowled at Sasuke. "Ugh, whatever! Okay I didn't drive _half _the way here and get my ears practically raped by Paris Hilton on the radio just so we can skip this town and move on to the next! That's not fair!"

"He's right Sakura." Tenten reasoned. "And besides, by reading past that first post-it, you made a promise to your mom's memory to do _every single one _of these tasks. You can't just bail out cause you don't wanna get in trouble."

"Yeah! And I kinda wanna see what a sunrise looks like upside down!" Kiba said.

Ugh. Out ruled by the friends. So much for _not _breaking the law. Mmhmm, just get me my jail room right now…Okay, I'm being a bit melodramatic-I'll stop. "Fine, fine, fine. We _won't _skip this task. Can we just go into town or something already? I'm kinda hungry." I said giving up.

You could tell my friends were all happy-well, except for Sasuke, Neji, and Shikamaru who looked like they could care less-because I was met by wide, grinning faces.

Oh, the agony of getting caught and thrown in jail. We were already cutting it close with Naruto and Sasuke stealing the truck and now trespassing. Man are we suckers for the law or what? Oh well. I'll just have to grin and bear it. Just grin and bear it…..

I cannot just grin and bear it! I'm gonna go to jail! Jesus! My friends are all criminals! Okay, so we left the parking lot at like 1:40 am and walked the 10 miles into town. It all 

started along the way when (and I have no idea where they got them from) Kiba and Naruto all of a sudden whipped out 20 bottles of red spray paint each in plastic bags…

_Flashback_

"_What the hell? Naruto and Kiba! Where did you guys get all those spray paint cans from?" I asked with surprise written all over my face._

_Naruto snickered evilly. "The secret stash hidden in my boxers of course!"_

_The scary part was that I couldn't tell if Naruto was kidding or not based on the impassive look I got from Kiba._

"_Uh…Okay then." Tenten said with a look on her face that totally said, "Oh God my friends are such spazzes! Why do I hang out with them!?". _

"_What're you guys planning on doing with them?" I asked._

"_What else do you do with spray paint? You __**spray paint **__on stuff! Duh!" Naruto said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world._

_I, being the little goody-two-shoes that I most definitely am, but wish I wasn't, couldn't just stand by and let Naruto and Kiba vandalize people's property so I marched up to them and demanded the can._

"_No! We were gonna paint the town red!" Naruto whined._

_Kiba nodded eagerly by Naruto's side. "Yeah! I think it'd be totally sick to wake up one morning and find my whole entire town red!"_

_At this I was a little wary. Did they know that the expression "paint the town red," was __**just **__an expression? People don't actually go painting town's red-or at least not anyone I know. "Ugh guys? You don't actually plan on painting the 'town red' do you?"_

"_Uh duh! What else would we mean by 'painting the town red'?" Kiba said making those little quotation mark thingies on his index and middle fingers on both hand._

"_Except we're gonna __**spray**__ paint the town red! Haha!" Naruto said._

"_Yeah! Good one!" Kiba said giving Naruto a high five._

_Before I could say anything Kiba and Naruto ran off and began spray painting whole apartments, fences, cars, trees, flowers-basically anything lying around the place-red._

_At first I was a little too shocked to do anything so instead I just stood there, mouth gaping open as I watched my friends spray paint the town red. "Holy hell guys!" Neji said, bringing me back to reality. _

"_Come on! We've gotta go stop them before some cop or anyone else find them!" Tenten said as she began to run after the two boys._

"_Wait!" Shikamaru commanded as he pulled out a camcorder from his jacket pocket. "I've gotta videotape this! Man this is funny!" _

_I watched in horror as Shikamaru began filming the all the red and stopping a couple of times to snap pictures of the red smoke gathering in the air and the abandoned, empty cans rolling around in the dirt. By now Kiba and Naruto were already like on the other side of the city and all we could hear were their excited shrieks and fun-filled laughter._

"_We have to stop them!" I said, ignoring Shikamaru's protests and followed the trail of red to the boys, all the while sarcastically thinking: You know I've never actually spray painted a town red before-I wonder if I'll get thrown in jail for crimes of extreme vandalism?_

_By the time I caught up to Naruto and Kiba, they were covered in red themselves and were on all fours, rolling around in the ground laughing. They had run out of spray paint by now so the other areas of the city ahead were still left untouched. Shikamaru and the others had caught up by now and Shikamaru had been taping the whole walk here._

"_Smile pretty for the camera." He commanded and the two boys got up and smiled big cheesy grins while the rest of their bodies were red. _

_After the picture was taken we all kinda attacked them-except for Hinata that is cause she's too shy to yell at anyone. "WAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!?" Tenten and Ino yelled._

"_ARE YOU GUYS TRYING TO GET US THROWN IN JAIL!?" was Sasuke and Neji's reply._

_But mine had to be awarded first place: "YOU FUCKING IDIOTS!!" complimented with a sharp blow to their…ahem…privates._

"_HOLY SHIT!" We heard someone say on the other side of the city. "WE"VE BEEN ATTACKED BY RED ALIENS!!"_

_We all kind cracked up at this but ran away quickly when we heard the police sirens approaching…._

That wasn't even the only thing jail-worthy they did. Oh, there were others like jacking some random guys money to pay for a meal. That guy chased us for like ever before giving up. And the thing is, it's still not even time for sunrise yet. Actually, we just got back to the beach and are preparing for the sunrise.

"When we're done with this I'm so murdering you guys." I said to Naruto and Kiba, not forgetting their earlier escapades, as I slung a foot over the pier and put my body upside down.

The rest did the same. As I hung there upside down, I felt pretty disoriented and I could feel all the blood rushing to my head but it was kind of invigorating.

"It's 5:59 now Sakura. Should we start?" Hinata asked once everyone was upside down.

""Uh-huh." I responded, getting a little bit woozy.

Shikamaru nodded as he began rolling the camera and Ino began to count down. "!0…9…8…7…6…Take it away Sakura!"

"Uh-huh. 5…4…3…2…1…"….

**Yes well I thought that was a little unrealistic the whole spray painting the town but I've had this idea for a while and so I just decided to put it in this chapter. Read and review peeps! Arriverderci!**


	9. Sakura and the Red Aliens Were Here

**All right people, I'm back from the dead. Missed me? Yes, no, maybe so? Anyways, the only reason I'm updating this instead of studying for my finals (I wasn't planning on updating any of my stuff until after June 13****th****.) is because I made a deal with my friend that I would update both 21 Blue Post It's and Life According to Me before Friday night, unless I would have to pay her 1 (same with her; she has to update her story unless she pays me a buck.). I know what you're thinking- a dollar isn't that much, but to someone who is totally broke (like moi for example), a dollar could be the difference between 99 and 100-which in reality it actually is. Before I forget, did anyone notice the name change? Narumaniac2425 has now become Glories in Mourning. I explain the reason why I changed it in my profile. And so before I make this note any longer, I give you ch.9! Enjoy!**

**I don't own Naruto.**

They say that hanging upside down makes all the blood rush to your head. They –whoever _they_ are- are completely correct. Don't get me wrong here people- watching the sun rise while upside down is pretty sweet stuff and all but after all while, you begin to feel like you're about to drop dead. "It's beautiful." I whispered to no one in particular.

Watching the sun rise while being upside down makes it seem like sunset, but completely different. I tried to stay put until the sun was fully up in the sky so that I could fully absorb all the beauty, but after like 2 minutes, my face was as red as a tomato and my head was a bubble, just waiting to burst.

"Alright guys," I said as I slid off the pier. "I'm getting off before I pass out."

"Yeah, me too." Naruto said as he attempted to get off but missed the ground horribly and would've fallen into the big, sharp rocks in the water 6 feet below if Sasuke hadn't been so fast and grabbed the back of Naruto's shirt before he fell down to his, cold, watery death. "Nice catch." I said as I wobbled around a bit, still pretty disoriented.

"Yeah," Naruto mumbled. "Thanks."

"Hn." Sasuke replied, not at all fazed by the blood rushing around in his head.

"Alright," Tenten said getting off as well. "That's it for us," and Neji and Hinata followed.

I dusted off my shorts- and no, they aren't gay, faggy, short shorts that ride up your butt. They're cool, totally kick ass brown, red, and white Bermuda shorts. And in case you're wondering, I'm wearing a red tank top with a black hoodie over it, and red high top converses. Back to the subject at hand before I started discussing my freakishly 

amazing wardrobe (or at least I think it's freakishly amazing): everyone is getting off the pier and leaning on it instead. Shikamaru was the only one left but that's just because he's videotaping the whole thing. Shikamaru is our personal videotaper dude as he's the only one with a camcorder, so he can take pictures and videos. "That's it." Shikamaru said as he turned the camcorder away from the sun and turned it towards him. "This is Shikamaru. That"- he turned it to face the sun and then turned it back to face him- is the sun rising, while I am upside down. Courtesy of Sakura over there"- he turned the camcorder towards me and I waved, then he turned it back to himself-and I am done taping because I'm about to pass out and am becoming too lazy to tape anymore, so bye." And with that he pressed stop and closed the camcorder. Then he got down and joined the rest of us, right side up.

"Well that was fun." Ino said, breaking the silence that had enveloped (I feel so smart right now!) us as we stared peacefully at the morning sky.

"Yeah." Said Hinata quietly.

I looked down at my watch- 6:07 am. I sighed. As much as I didn't want to leave the peaceful surroundings of the empty beach, I knew we had to leave soon before someone notices us here and reports us-we _are _trespassing in case your little brains forgot. "Ok, come on guys. Time to go." I said as I bent down to tie my shoe lace on my left sneaker.

"You're kidding right?" Tenten exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Naruto said, siding with Tenten, and crossing his arms in total defiance. "We just got here like 10 minutes ago and now we have to leave? What's up with that man?" Apparently, my friends seem to be enthralled by the sight.

Those two obviously don't get it. But before I could explain, Sasuke-surprise, surprise- cut me off. "Sakura's right guys. I know it's pretty and all"- who'd have thought Sasuke was sentimental! Aww!-"but unless we want to get in jail for trespassing"- "Don't forget extreme vandalism!" I added.

"I was just getting to that." Sasuke said sourly. I threw up my hands in defense. "Geez, sorry." I muttered.

Sasuke continued. "As I was saying, if we don't want to get arrested for trespassing and vandalism, we'd better get out of Tallahassee as soon as possible."

"Oh," Naruto said sheepishly, "I forgot about that."

"Which one?" Ino asked.

"Uh…both?"

"Okay, I get the trespassing part, but how do you forget spray painting a town red man? Especially with me doing it with you?" Kiba asked.

Naruto shrugged. "I dunno. It's not like I have the best memory in the world here people."

As if we couldn't figure _that _little tidbit of information out Naruto, I thought to myself. Thank you for making that known to me- I really do appreciate it. God how I love sarcasm. It's my anti-drug and really helps that whole "mask" thing that I'm attempting (and surprisingly succeeding in) at. "Alright guys, let's go." I said, not exactly wanting to be caught.

"Yeah." Tenten said somewhat begrudgingly.

As our little motley crew made its way, away from the pier and the water and sand below, over to the truck, Hinata suddenly remembered something. "Hey Sakura…"

"Yeah?"

"Aren't you supposed to like…write your name somewhere at every place you visit? And aren't you also supposed to get dirt-in this case sand- or something?" Hinata asked.

I had totally forgotten about all that stuff. "Oh yeah! Thanks for the heads up Hinata!"

I took the two Ziploc bags out of my back pocket. One was filled with dirt from my front lawn and the other was completely empty. "Right well uh…here I go."

As we walked down to the sand, I thought about how close I came to not fulfilling not one, but _two_ tasks on the post-it's. That thought right there is just devastating I must say. I opened up the two bags, first grabbing a little bit of dirt from the first bag and sprinkling in over the sand. The ebbing tide came in and dragged the dirt and other sand farther away into the Atlantic. I couldn't help but smile at the sight of the dirt-although it's sort of like mud now I suppose- mixed in with the sand, just floating around there. Of course it'll sink eventually (eventually being in like 5 seconds or so) but until then, I like to think that a part of me is there in that water, and will remain there forever. Well, maybe not _forever, _forever, but at least until we leave this city-which if I'm lucky, will be before any of us get caught or someone (someone being Naruto) does something stupid to get us caught.

Next on the list would be to take some sand and stick it in the empty bag-which is precisely just what I did. In a way I guess I sorta understand why my mom wanted me to do this-the whole dirt thing I mean, not the post-it's. By taking dirt from the place I've lived my whole is like taking something that's a part of me, I guess you could say. It's like my past being joined with my future. The future being the dirt or sand or whatever it 

is of the places I'm going to visit pretty soon. Wow. That sounded really gay didn't it? Ah well. Making gay phrases is what I live for.

"Okay people," I said as I rubbed my hands together to get rid of any dirt or sand left over. "Anybody got a marker or something? To write my name in and stuff?"

Kiba and Naruto grinned like crazy. "What?" I asked.

Naruto whipped out a can of red spray paint from his pants pocket. "Here" He said as he tossed it to me. "We made sure not to finish the last can so you could sign your name on the pier before we leave."

I was touched. Naruto and Kiba actually thinking of me during their wild escapade from last night. "Thanks guys." I took the can and walked back up to the pier. Everyone else followed me up.

I was just gonna draw my name on the wood on a small little section, but according to my mom, my name has to be visible and really big where it'll catch people's attention. So instead of just writing SAKURA on the bar, I decided to go all out and write "SAKURA AND THE RED ALIENS FROM MARS WERE HERE AND BID YOU ADIEU!" in big, bold, cool, spray paint letters on the walkway of the pier. That way, people will most definitely notice it because they would be walking on it.

When I backed away from what I wrote so that my friends could see they all broke out in applause and whooped. They obviously heard the guy last night scream, "We've been attacked by red aliens from Mars!" "Yeah man!" Kiba yelled. "Go red aliens from Mars!"

We all laughed and Shikamaru took a picture of what I wrote. "Okay, okay. Time to go." Neji said, stopping our fun.

I sighed as we walked back over to the truck. "Naruto, you're driving." Sasuke said as he slumped down in the passenger's seat, once again leaving the rest of us to sit on the ground, in the back of truck.

"What?! No way! I don't wanna drive again!" Naruto stated as he crossed his arms and sat down, cross legged in the back.

"Well you have to-it's your turn." Tenten pointed out. "'Sides, you're only driving for like 2 hours before someone else takes over."

Naruto sulked and made an incredibly annoying whiney noise. "Ugh! I'll drive Naruto. Just stop whining! God." Neji said as he sat down at the driver's seat.

Naruto grinned. "Thanks."

"But you're gonna drive again when it should've been my turn-just so you know." Neji added as he put the keys in the engine, turned it and revved up the engine.

Naruto's smile faded. "Aww man! Can I at least have shot gun?" He said hopefully as he stared at Sasuke with big, wide, pleading eyes-the type that would make anyone swoon. Anyone, that is, most definitely does not include Sasuke "I am so freaking cool" Uchiha, aka "The rock." (Oh I know what you're going to say, and/or thinking right now: "The Rock" is a really gay nickname. I personally thought so too, but seeing as how it was little miss "I get everything I want" Ino who came up with it, the name kinda stuck.

"No." Sasuke said plainly and turned his head to look out the window. Although the day had started out pretty promising, the sky had now turned gray and storm clouds were rolling in. The sad part was that it was only 7: 28 am, and the paint might not have dried properly yet.

Naruto began his stupid sulking routine again. After like 5 minutes (in actuality it was only like 30 seconds or so- a bit of an exaggeration, I know- I'm sorry). "Oh my God!" Ino cried. "Sasuke _please _just let him have your seat. I can't stand him right now!"

Sasuke turned to glare at Naruto for a minute. Naruto's whining died down as Sasuke stared him down (Sasuke is a _bit _intimidating, I must say.), but Naruto then looked away and his whining got louder.

With an exasperated sigh, Sasuke unbuckled his seat belt and got off the seat, gesturing to Naruto to go and sit. "Thanks Sasuke!" Naruto said as he went up and gave Sasuke a bone-crushing hug.

"Don't touch me!" Sasuke said as he pushed Naruto away.

I looked down at my watch (I've noticed that I do that a lot now). It was now 7:34 and we haven't even began to move yet, even though the truck is ready to go. And oh joy! The beach will be opening soon-though I doubt many people would want to be here especially since it seems as though the storm that coming will be as big as Timbuktu! (I actually have no idea what-so-ever how big Timbuktu is exactly, but I'm thinking it's got to be pretty big) I'll break it down for you- with the opening of the beach, people will come and see our truck just sitting here. With people here, it won't be long before people see what I wrote on the ground. They'd have to know it was us because we were the only ones in the area while the beach was closed. Then-if they're smart- they'll link the mysterious overnight occurrence that happened in town to us-which will eventually lead to the police and so on and so forth. As you know, I am a goody-goody-two-shoes, (as much as I try not to be I can't help it) and as a member of the O.G.G.T.S.W.A.-the Organization of Goody-Goody-Two-Shoes of the World Association (if such a thing exists beyond the figments of my imagination, then I'd really want to join!) I cannot help 

but feel as though going to jail is not really my style. And so I then said to Neji, "Can we get out of here?"

His response: "Umm…okay." He put the truck in forward and began to drive.

Easy as cake. But I didn't stop hyperventilating until we were well clear of the beach. Once we got into town, there were police cars lined all along the red street. News Station trucks were also beginning to appear. The rain had also begun to pour down so all the officers and news reporters were soaked. "Shit." I heard Kiba say.

"Looks like we made the 6:00 news guys." I said, trying to sound lighthearted about the whole thing when, in reality, on the inside I was practically dying.

"I can't believe this is gonna be on the news! That's so sick!" Naruto said as he opened up a window.

"What are you doing?" Hinata asked warily. We all had a sense of foreboding.

"Wait and see." He said with a devilish grin.

I gave Sasuke an alarmed looked. He just shrugged in return. As Neji rounded a corner, there was a lone police officer, taking notes on what some guy was saying. As we got closer I could hear that the voice of the man being questioned belonged to the same person who had screamed out the night before that we were being attacked by red aliens. "…it was so scary officer. All I could see was red everywhere. And according to _Galaxy Wars _issue 197, if you walk out on a street one night and find everywhere covered in red, it signalizes the coming of the evil red aliens!" the man said-although up close, he looks only like 19 or 20 years old at the most and is an obvious comic book fanatic. Naruto fished out the same (although now empty) spray paint can that I had used to write my name back at the beach.

And as soon as we got close enough to the police officer, Naruto chucked the bottle at the officer and it hit him square in the head. "Red aliens for life baby!" He yelled out the window, letting some rain get in the truck. I looked on with absolute terror. Only Naruto would _purposely _want us to get caught.

Naruto was about to say more but Neji took one hand off the wheel and dragged Naruto back down into his seat while Sasuke closed the window. "ARE YOU FREAKING INSANE!?" I yelled at him. Naruto just shrugged as if he threw spray paint cans at police officers everyday-and as far as I know, Naruto probably does. "Jesus Christ Naruto!" Kiba yelled as he got up to give Naruto a high-five. "That was so sick man!"

_Sick? _SICK!? It really amazes me how much my friends are complete psychopaths and I can't help but wonder more and more frequently, why do I hang out with them?

"Not just sick dude, but _ill!_ That was so ill!" Kiba said.

"Thank you, thank you very much!" Naruto said as he did a horrible Elvis impersonation and took a bow.

Naruto and Kiba don't seem to realize what has just been done-but _I_ certainly do. I walked up to the front and shoved Naruto out of the seat. He fell to the ground with a thud and mumbled incoherently as he crawled away to the back like some dejected little kid who didn't get his favorite flavor of ice cream.

I bit my lip as I sat down in the passenger's seat and looked out the window. The police officer had recovered from his head injury (but was sporting a blue icepack) and was now pointing angrily to our truck while talking to another officer. "Oh crap." I mumbled as the other officer began to walk up to the truck which had seemed to stop moving. "I'm thinking we should high-tail it out of here?" I said as I turned to Neji.

"Agreed." He said simply as he revved up the engine and pressed down hard at the gas pedal.

As we sped away I saw the police officer talking into his walkie-talkie, while the one who got hit was copying down our license plate number. This just great. No, not great, _freaking amazing!!_ God! Why does bad stuff always happen to me? Ugh! I can just imagine the news reports tonight: "And in other news, a couple of pranksters spray paint a section of downtown Tallahassee. Their only message for the police officers patrolling the area was 'Sakura and the red aliens from Mars were here and we bid you adieu', which was written on the pier of Rocky Beach, and an offhand, empty spray paint can thrown at a police officer from the open window of a Hudson and Co. truck. Besides extreme vandalism, the pranksters are known for breaking and entering and trespassing at the local beach. Officers are still investigating the scene of the major vandalism act. If anyone has any information on the identities of the vandals, people are urged to come forth to the police…"

I gulped. Oh dear, oh dear. And I can't wait to hear that police report over the radio: "Suspects riding in large white shipping truck with 'Hudson and Co.' written on the side in red. License plate reads: 592B6LK. Proceed with caution-persons in truck are known for hurling projectiles out of windows. If anyone apprehends or see's the suspects call…"

If we make it out alive of this thing, remind me to NEVER go on any road trips with Naruto…

**Alright! Finished before 10:30 pm Friday night, May 30****th****, 2008. Ha! In your face flutefaerie! Anyways, I probably won't be updating any time soon so enjoy this chapter while you can. Read and review people! Sayonara!**


	10. Romantically Confused

**Yo peeps. Okay, I know it's been a while and I'm really sorry about that. I really actually have no excuse (do I ever?) for not updating. Anyways, I'm currently on vacation and am writing this chapter for you people so you'd better enjoy it!**

**I don't own Naruto.**

"Alright guys," Sasuke said as he pulled over to the side of the highway, pulled out a map of the U.S. and laid it out flat on the dashboard, "where to next?"

I pulled out the post-it's from my pocket in quick succession and quickly skimmed its contents (yeah, yeah, I know. You would think that I would have already memorized the post-it's down to the very last finger smudge- I'm guessing my mom smudged some of the ink while she was writing- seeing as how something as traumatic-mom's death- and exciting-this road trip- has just happened to me in the past two weeks, but no. I've been too busy thinking about other things to take the time to sit down and memorize 12 simple tasks left to me by my dead mother- what a lovely daughter I am don't you think?) "Uh…we're going to Raleigh, North Carolina next, 'to watch the 4th of July fireworks with the one you'- meaning me-' love the most.'" I said, directly quoting the post-it.

I couldn't help but blush a little bit. You're probably wondering who I'm gonna take with me huh? Yeah well you and me both! _The one I love the most_. Argh mom! Why'd you have to put that? Does she mean that in a romantic way or something?

Sasuke nodded. "Right…the one you love the most…got it." He said a bit tongue-tied as he buried his nose in the map in front of him.

"So Sakura, who ya gonna take?" Naruto said with an overenthusiastic grin. "I mean you can take me if you want-but it's nothing romantic or anything."

I blushed harder- wouldn't you!? I mean, one of your best friends-who you've known for like…_ever_- is clearly hinting that he wants _you_ to take _him _on this "supposedly" romantic fireworks show where it'll be just the two of you…with no one you personally know around…in the dark…the perfect time for said friend to make a 'move'-_ACK_! And when I say "_ack_" I mean "eew", "gross", "No way Jose", "Hit the road Jack, and don't you come back", "N.O. Nada, rejection, no freaking way is that ever gonna happen". Get the picture-or in this case colorful vocabulary and well known phrases? And the worst part is that I have ABSOLUTELY NO ROMANTIC FEELINGS FOR NARUTO _AT ALL!!_

If I did like Naruto like that I would have been all like, "Sure, okay Naruto! You can come with me!" in this really high-pitched, chipper sounding kind of voice…but I _don't_ like Naruto like that. 

And that's why my response came out like this: "Uhh…maybe I'll take-" I couldn't help but notice Sasuke clench the map a little harder than he was a moment ago-"…I'll take…all of you!"

"Huh!?" was what my reply was.

"Yeah," I said with nod. You could totally tell that I was making this up as I went. "That's what I'll do-take all of you with me to see the fireworks."

"But it said you have to take the _one _you love the most, not the _ones_" Naruto pressed as he crossed his arms and sulked.

"Yeah Sakura." Ino said with a highly annoying smirk as her eyes just _happened_ to land on Sasuke. "I thought you had a special someone in mind too."

I blushed-again. I really don't know why everyone- and when I say everyone, I mean _everyone_- thinks that I have a crush on Sasuke. I most certainly do not! It's really annoying when people say that I do when I don't. And when I correct them they just laugh and say "good one Sakura". So yeah, it's true that I liked him when I was a little (back then Ino liked him too and we almost stopped being friends because of it. Eventually Ino stopped liking him and said that I could have him, but by then I was totally over him) kid-like 9 or 10 years old. But now I'm completely over him. Sure there are times when he looks at me, or I look at him and I get all tingly inside (how corny this must sound) and butterflies float around in my stomach (we're getting cornier by the second) and I can't help but wonder what my name would sound like attached to his last name (and cornier, and cornier…), but then those moments are over as quick as they come (finally! Some sanity returns!) and all thoughts of me liking him are over and done with and Sasuke goes back to being my closest guy friend, not some secret crush to fawn over from afar (are we going back to Cornyville?),never to tell him how I truly feel (yep, we're definitely back there) always to pine over him (can I get a one-way ticket back to Sanitylane please?) day after day, night after night, (Huh? What's that? No trains going to Sanitylane at the present moment!?) until I finally die of heartache and longing after many years of being a lonely spinster with 16 cats (Are you saying I'm stranded in Cornyville!? NOOOOO!!) and even as I die, I'll think of all the opportunities I missed at love (la-di-da-di-da! Ho-hum-di-lum-lum) all because of a certain Sasuke Uchiha…Wow. I am one messed up little kid. (And I love how I'm having side conversations with myself as well!) Come to think of it I'm not actually little…or a kid…or a _little kid._ So how about, "I'm one messed up big teenager?" No. That sounds weird and retarded…man! I have really strayed from the topic at hand.

Let's backtrack shall we? Aha! There we were, talking about how I don't like Sasuke. Yeah…okay. There's not much more to say on this topic so let's rejoin the world of the people outside my head.

"I don't know what you're talking about Ino." I said curtly (wow. I don't think I've ever actually said anything curtly before in my life.).

"Oh I think you do." Tenten said joining in on the fun as she nodded in Sasuke's direction.

See what I mean? Everyone thinks that I like Sasuke. I. DO. NOT. LIKE. HIM! Gee whiz! (Here we go again!) Besides those occasional random moments which I explained to you before, I feel nothing but friendship and that sort of brother-sister kind of love towards Sasuke. And I'm pretty sure that those feelings are mutual.

"No, I'm pretty sure I don't." I said, starting to get a little annoyed.

"Whatever you say Sakura." Ino said with a tiny shrug as she and Tenten dropped the subject.

After that it was quiet. (…too quiet-Dun dun dun!...sorry, I had to think/ say that) "Alright. I think I know which way to go now." Sasuke said as he finally looked up from the map and gave it to me to hold. And with that, Sasuke started up the engine, shifted in "drive" and moved into the traffic of the highway, apparently oblivious to our whole conversation…

**That's the end of that chapter, and now I'm going to sleep. G'night! Buenos noches! **


	11. I Spy Demise

**Sorry for the delay but my internet hasn't been working for two weeks, but it's back now. Anyways, I'm not sure if you noticed but I replaced the author's note in ch.10 with an actual chapter of the story so if you haven't already, you might want to read that chapter before you read this one. Anyways, on with the story. Oh by the way, this chapter is a filler since they're on the road.**

**I don't own Naruto**

"Hey does anyone wanna turn on the radio?" Naruto asked with a bored sigh from his seat in the back.

"NO!" Came the response from everyone. After the Paris Hilton song we were all a little wary about what we would find if we turned on the radio. Because seriously! _Paris Hilton!? _Her songs are like rape to the ears! It's horrible! But anyways I knew where Naruto was coming from-the boredom was eating us alive. The adrenaline that we had back in Tallahassee was starting to fade and was beginning to be replaced by extreme boredom-or to find a cooler word for it: ennui. Isn't that a chronically ill word? I've actually never even heard of it before till this very moment, but now that I know what it means, I feel oh so smart!

I looked around at my friends. Ino was picking at her nails, Shikamaru was taking a nap in the corner, Neji was in deep thought it seemed while Tenten placed her head on his outstretched legs and lay down, Hinata was twiddling her thumbs, and Naruto and Kiba were just staring at everyone with a blank face on. Sasuke was of course driving and I was sitting shot gun and was just as bored as everyone else. The _ennui(Ha!_ The kick-butt-awesome-ly word reigns supreme once more!) was killing us slowly. "How about we play I spy?" I said lazily, trying to end the boredom.

"_I spy_?" Ino said with contempt. "What are we? Five years old?"

"What? You wanna risk the radio again?" I challenged. I could see Ino-God bless her-trying to work up an argument in her head, but she gave in eventually. All my friends know that I am a stubborn ass and once I make up my mind, that's it.

"Fine. Whatever." Ino mumbled.

"Good." I huffed. "Besides, I rather like playing I Spy. So anyways, who wants to go first?"

"I do, I do!" Naruto yelled, his hand shooting up like an eager school student bouncing up and down in his seat, anxious to answer the question.

"Uh, okay then. Naruto you go first then."

"Great!" Naruto said getting up from his seat in the ground and coming up to the front of the truck where Sasuke and I were. "I need to look out the window." He said to me.

"Hold on, let me move." I said as I got out of the seat and took Naruto's vacated seat in the back of the truck.

"Um…." Naruto trailed off as he stuck his head out the open window. "Got it!" He said happily as he brought his head back inside the truck. "Okay! I spy with my little eye something red!"

"Sakura's sneakers?" Hinata guessed.

"Nope!" Naruto said as he sat down in the passenger's seat.

"My nail-polish?" Ino said lazily.

Naruto shook his head.

"The red writing outside the truck?" Sasuke said, joining the game.

"My shirt?" I guessed while looking around the truck looking for red objects.

"No. Do you guys want a clue?" Naruto asked.

"Sure. Why not?" Shikamaru said, waking up suddenly.

"Okay let me think…Got it! It's red and it went fast." Naruto said.

I was stumped. And by the looks on everyone else's faces, they were too. "I give up." Neji said suddenly.

"Me too." Tenten added.

"Does everyone else give up?" Naruto asked.

Sasuke, Hinata, Shikamaru, Ino, Kiba and I all nodded. "The red Lexus that was next to us!" Naruto exclaimed. "I win!"

"Now wait one second!" Ino said irritably. "How were we supposed to know that there was a red Lexus next to us? It's not as if we can see outside Naruto."

"Oh yeah!" Naruto said sheepishly. "Sorry. I forgot you guys can't see the road next to us."

A sort of awkward silence fell over us for like…a minute. "Well that sucks." I said breaking the silence. "We can't _all_ ride shot gun.

"Wait!" Kiba said out of nowhere. "Why don't we open the back door? " He looked around at us as if it was the smartest plan in the world. It wasn't.

"Um…isn't that slightly dangerous?" Hinata asked quietly.

"Yeah! And a bit stupid as well?" Tenten piped.

Kiba shrugged.

"Well _I _think it's pure genius!" Naruto praised. "I mean seriously guys! That's the only way we'll all be able to see outside."

"And I repeat Hinata and Tenten's question: _Isn't that slightly dangerous and a bit stupid as well!?_" Ino said shrilly.

"Not if you stay away from the door it isn't." Kiba argued.

"Uh okay." Ino started. "That might take care of the dangerous part but now we move on to the _stupid_ part of the question."

Naruto and Kiba blinked. Ino smirked and folded her arms. "I rest my case."

"Well what do you think Sakura? This is _your_ road trip." Naruto said.

I sighed. Of course _I _had to make the decision. Well if I'm gonna say anything might as well say it as a pompous ass. "Well…having analyzed the situation at hand, I have come to the conclusion that it is indeed both dangerous _and_ stupid to open the door in the back of the truck. Not to mention completely foolhardy and incredibly reckless." Naruto and Kiba looked downtrodden. "_But," _I stated with an afterthought, " I think that it would be the only way for all of us to see the world outside of us most easily and therefore I think we _should_ open the backdoor."

The boys whooped. The girls however were less ecstatic. "A bit impulsive don't you think Sakura?" Hinata said.

I shrugged. Hey, you only live once and since Naruto and Kiba's escapades in Tallahassee I've begun to see what a…sheltered life I've lead. "_Impulsive!?_" Ino bellowed. "Crazy is more like it!"

"I mean, have you lost your marbles or something?" Tenten asked.

"No I haven't lost my marbles and I know that this decision is very unlike me," I started to say," but I think it'll be kinda fun guys. I mean sure I wasn't so crazy about the spray paint thing but now as I look back, I think it's kinda funny actually. So don't you guys wanna look back years from now and say, 'Man wasn't that road trip we took in the summer of 2007 completely awesome and wild! I'm glad I took the risk and opened up that back door of our stupid truck.' Well I do. How about you guys?"

My friends all stared at me like I was retarded. And yes I know, that would have to be the gayest speech I have(and hopefully will ) ever made in my entire life. But sometimes it's the gayness of what you've said that sparks interest in your listeners. "Wow." Shikamaru said slowly. "That was gay."

We all laughed. "I know I know. Whatever. Just open pull over Sasuke so we can open the door."

"Right." Sasuke said as he pulled over again and turned the engine off.

One by one we all got out of the truck through the driver's and passenger's seat. We all stood there at the back of the truck and man! What a sight we must have been. Nine bedraggled teenagers who haven't slept in two days, standing at the edge of the highway by a large delivery truck, while cars whizzed by.

"So Sasuke, Naruto…do you guys have the key?" I asked placing my hands on my hips.

"Uh…" Naruto trailed.

"What key?" Sasuke questioned still at the side of the truck.

"Umm, the key to the padlock?" I said pointing to the large padlock that was hung between two metal bars at the bottom of the door, preventing it from being opened.

"Oh…that key." Naruto said sheepishly. "We uh…didn't have the time to err…get it." He finished lamely.

"Well that sucks." Tenten said in monotone.

"Yeah, nice going guys!" Ino said sarcastically.

"It wasn't _my_ fault!" Sasuke defended. "I was the one who had to play dead in the middle of the road. Blame Blondie here-_not_ me."

Naruto looked affronted. Whether from being called "Blondie" or because Sasuke was playing the blame game I'll never know. "Listen, arguing with each other isn't going to get us anywhere." I said, trying to calm everyone down. "We don't _have_ to play I Spy."

"We could." Hinata said in a tiny voice. Everyone turned to look at her. "Well you see…I can…um…pick locks?" She explained, turning red and twiddling her thumbs.

"Really?" I asked.

She nodded. "Wow. Um…okay then. Hinata work your magic." I said stepping aside.

I watched in awe and surprise as Hinata took a bobby-pin out of her hair and jimmied the lock. In all my years of knowing Hinata, I would've never guessed that she'd be able to do something like picking a lock. Well that just shows how much of a friend I am. The lock clicked and gave way. "Nice work!" I said. It was followed by rounds of "yeah"s and "great"s and even some light applause if I do say so myself. Hinata just stood there all quiet like and blushed ruby-red. Yep, that's my girl Hinata-always modest. Naruto also had a look of admiration upon his face as he stared at Hinata causing her to blush even more.

Kiba pulled the lock out and pushed the metal door upwards until it clicked. "Alright!" He said happily. "Everyone in the truck!"

Everyone rushed into the truck. Sasuke got back in the driver's seat and began to drive once more. "Okay, okay! Who's first?" Kiba asked enthusiastically.

"I think Hinata should go first!" Naruto replied.

Everyone nodded. "Uh…okay." Hinata said shyly. "I spy with my little eye…something blue!"

We all looked outside. Right behind us was a blue Audi with a big-haired woman talking on her cell phone animatedly, in the passenger's side, while a younger, teenage boy-her son it seemed- drove. The 

two of them stared at us with bemused expressions and the boy even pointed at us. They obviously were talking about us. "The blue car behind us?" Neji guessed.

Hinata shook her head. After a couple of guesses-all of them being wrong-we all gave up. "Alright," I said," what was it?"

Hinata giggled. "The boy who was pointing at us? Well his fingernails were painted blue."

"Oh. Did not even notice that." Tenten said, smacking her forehead.

The blue Audi made a turn at the exit while we stayed on the highway. Replacing the Audi was a red mustang with the hood down, carrying four rowdy, _very_ good looking teenage guys, who looked to be about 18. There were McDonald wrappers all over the dash-board. "They are H.O.T. hawt!" Ino gushed waving at the boys. The boys, surprisingly waved back. "Hey hottie!" The driver yelled at Ino. Ino pushed her way to the edge of the truck.

"Ino." Neji said warningly.

"I won't fall out don't worry!" Ino said with a dismal wave. "Yeah?" she called to the guys.

"What's your name?" The blonde guy in back called.

"Ino! What's yours hot stuff?" Ino coed while batting her eyelashes and licking her lips seductively.

I rolled my eyes. She was turning on the charm that she always used to pick up hot guys. Ino was and will always be the biggest flirt I have and will probably ever know.

"Drake!" The blond cried. "The driver is Mitch! This is Quentin!"- he pointed at the shaggy red-head sitting shot-gun, lazily chugging down a beer. "And this-" he pointed to the dark-haired guy sitting next him, "-is Paul!"

"How old are you?" Quentin asked, throwing bottle haphazardly out the window.

Ugh! Oh how I hate litterers! "Ugh…17!" Ino lied, "but I'll be 18 in…2 days!" In actuality, Ino's birthday had yet to come and she was currently only 15. "How 'bout you guys?"

Drake answered. "Well all of us are 19 except Paul here who turns 19 in two months!"

"Cool. So boys!" Ino yelled. "You wanna meet my equally hot girlfriends?"

"What! No!" I yelled, a blush creeping up my neck, contrasting disgustingly with my pink hair. While Ino may be a total hottie, and Tenten was an "alluring" beauty, and even Hinata was fairly pretty, I was just…plain. I mean I'm not exactly the worst-looking girl in the world, but compared to my friends I'm not much to look at. The only comments regarding my looks I got were all about my abnormal hair color.

"Yeah! Bring 'em to the front so we can get a good look!" Paul yelled while sniggering to his friends.

"Pft!" The guys-our guys I mean-said. Some of them didn't want other guys-especially, _older_ guys-checking out their how you say? _Women_. I sighed and shook my head sadly. Boy's can be so possessive some times.

"Alright girls!" Ino said turning to us. "Come on!"

"No thanks." Tenten said lazily with a hint of sarcasm, "I wouldn't want to give Neji here any reason's to be jealous."

"And I'm afraid of falling out." Hinata said, while quickly looking in Naruto's direction.

Ino faced me. "Uh...ditto." I said, wringing my hands.

Ino pouted and turned back to the guys. "They're being party poopers and don't want to come up front!"

"That's okay baby!" Mitch said. "We can all share you-if you know what I mean."

Ino giggled, but I raised my eyebrows. Was there some hidden innuendo in that last comment?

"Uh Ino…" I trailed off cautiously.

"Bump!" Sasuke called from up front, a bit oblivious to what was going on back here.

Ino didn't quite catch the warning and when Sasuke hit the bump, Ino fell out of the truck and landed on the hood of the mustang. "Whoa!" Mitch said, losing his grip on the steering wheel and swerving to the left a little. Ino screamed.

Everyone in the truck was gaping at Ino and trying not to laugh as she flailed around on the hood of the car. Shikamaru had even whipped out the camcorder and begun to shoot. "Stop flailing!" Mitch commanded, all the messing around gone his voice. "I can't see!"

It was true-he couldn't see and so he accidentally bumped into us. "Watch it!" Kiba cried.

"It's not us!" Quentin yelled. "It's _her_!"

"Yeah! Get her off our car!" Paul screamed.

"If you guys would stop we could!" I yelled.

"No way!" Mitch cried. "We had problems starting the car up in the first place! If we stop now we might not be able to start up again! Besides, if we did stop we'd be holding up everyone!"

Neji cursed."He's right about the traffic thing." Tenten said, panic edging into her usually calm voice. "Plus if we stop and let Ino get off she might get hit by an oncoming car."

This was bad. Ino was going to get hurt and if the boys wouldn't stop for her then she would have to jump off of a moving car and into the truck. "Oh shit." I said to myself, coming to the edge of the truck 

myself. "Ino! Stop moving and listen. You're not going to like this but you'll have to jump off the car and into the truck…okay?"

"Okay? Okay!? Of course it's not okay! Are you fucking insane!?" Ino yelled as a slew of curses came flying out her mouth. She had a tendency to curse a lot when she was angry or scared.

"Dirty mouth?" Drake said, the hint of joke coming on. He seemed to be the only one unaffected by this. "Clean it up with new Orbit gum!" He said, quoting the commercial and laughing at his own joke. No one else laughed. Ino glared at him.

"Ino! You have to jump off the car! Now!" I yelled, looking behind me. Traffic was easing up even more, 6 cars ahead and if we wanted to keep up with the speed, Ino had to move fast before the gap became too wide for her to jump.

"Oh holy fucking shit Sakura!" Ino screamed as she shakily got on her knees. Then she stood up slowly on the hood of the car.

"Now I really can't see." Mitch mumbled as he ungraciously honked his horn, making Ino jump and lose her footing.

"Ino!" Kiba cried.

"It's okay!" She yelled, wobbling as she regained her balance. She poised herself for the jump and looked positively frightened. We breathed a sigh of relief even though the worst was yet to come.

"It's okay." I said to her. "We'll catch you."

"You guys better or else my parents are suing." Ino yelled. "Count to three." She demanded.

"Alright," I said calmly, knowing better than to argue with her at a time like this, even though I knew with every second we were getting farther and farther apart. "1…2…3! Jump!"

Ino closed her eyes and jumped. "No!" I yelled. "Don't close your eyes!" It was too late. I'd like to say that the jump was in slow motion, like in the movies. But this was nothing like the movies and the jump was in real time. This was real and extremely dangerous. Ino's feet landed miraculously on the very edge of the truck. But she wobbled again and this time she actually fell off before anyone could catch her. I'd also like to say that the mustang was close enough to catch her once more…but it wasn't. Instead, Ino collided head-first with the hot asphalt and lay there unconscious. "STOP!!" We screamed to both Sasuke and Mitch. Sasuke stopped abruptly and thankfully, so did Mitch.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck!" Mitch said jumping out of the car and running over to Ino's crumpled form. Everyone in the truck ran out as well, followed by the boys in the mustang. No one cared that we were holding up traffic.

Shikamaru ran over to Ino and cradled her head in his arms-it was bloody mess. Silent tears were running down everyone's faces-even Drake, Mitch, Quentin, and Paul's. But Shikamaru was crying the hardest. Everyone knew that the two of them liked each other-they just never said anything about it.

"Someone call an ambulance!" He screamed through his choked sobs stuck in his throat, still cradling Ino's head.

"I'm on it." Paul said quietly whipping out his cell phone.

Soon enough people started parking their cars on the side of the highway and rushing over to us. They could clearly see that there had been an accident. People flocked around us not saying a word, sometimes offering a word of sympathy and then getting back in their cars and driving off. But lots of people were total jackasses and honked their horns at us.

The ambulance came quickly enough. The paramedics loaded Ino onto a stretcher and drove to the nearest hospital off of the nearest exit. All of us-including the boys from the mustang" followed in the truck. We were mostly quiet except for the occasional, 'I hope she's alright." Of course the bigger question on everyone's mind was, "Will she live?" but of course no one dared ask it.

And even though he didn't say anything, Shikamaru kept shoot accusatory looks at me, as if it were my fault that Ino was seriously injured. Strangely enough, I believed him.

**Well, the chapter took an unexpected twist. I wasn't actually planning on making Ino fall a second time but it just happened to come out that way. The whole opening the door in the back thing is a bit unrealistic, but that's how this story is going to be: pretty unrealistic. But oh well. That's just the way the cookie crumbles. Anyways, read and review. Will Ino survive this terrible encounter? Tune in next chapter (whenever that may be) to find out! Ciao!**

**P.S.,**

**As I have now realized, this chapter can't really be a filler anymore since you can't exactly ignore the fact that Ino is hurt, so I suppose it'll have to be a real chapter then. **


	12. Drama, Drama

**Wilkhomen (welcome in German but I think I compleatly bombed the spelling)! Hello all you wonderful people. It looks as if I have survived my first full week of high school-thank GOD! But you probably don't want to hear about that so onwards to ch. 12. I have to admit though I'm getting a little bored with this story. I've been thinking about putting it on hiatus but it wouldn't really be fair to those of you who actually want to read it. But I'll try my best to write as much and as quickly as possible.**

**I don't own Naruto. BTW, did any one notice the name change?**

My head was in my hands. "How the hell did this happen?" I asked myself quietly as we (me, Naruto, Neji, Sasuke, Tenten, Hinata, Kiba and Shikamaru, plus Mitch, Drake, Paul, and Quentin) sat there in the waiting room. No one had called Ino's parents which was probably a bad idea. I mean they should really know what's going on with their daughter right? Plus who was going to pay the hospital bill?

My conscience was basicallyeating-no, more like _devouring_, me alive. If I hadn't told the guys to open the back door then none of this would've happened. We would still be on our merry little way to Raleigh dying of boredom but at least Ino would be intact and her brain still functioning. But now…I didn't even want to think about it. "This is my fault…" I said to no one in particular.

I was of course expecting their answers to all be something along the lines of "no it wasn't Sakura" and such and such, and it was the response I got from everyone. Everyone except Shikamaru that is. He wouldn't even look in my direction and when he did, his eyes were full of hatred. Just seeing those eyes was like a sharp butcher's knife repeatedly stabbing into my back. It made me feel sick.

"What time is it?" Paul asked.

"I dunno," Tenten said with a yawn, like "4 oh clock pm?"

Paul nodded. "Not to seem rude or anything but, we kinda got some place to be…" He said sort of awkwardly.

"Oh yeah!" Drake said, jumping out of his seat and ruffling his hand through his shaggy blond hair. "That guy's party over in Atlanta that's tomorrow!"

"Dude I completely forgot!" Quentin said.

"Yeah…" Paul trailed off. "So umm, do you guys mind if we like leave or something? If we don't hit the road now we probably won't get to Georgia in time."

I stared at him and was about to say something but Shikamaru beat me to it. "If it wasn't for you guys talking to Ino then none of this would've happened! And now you guys have the nerve to say that you want to leave to go to some party that isn't even until tomorrow?"

"Hey now!" Mitch spoke up and I realized for the first time that he had a sort of southern accent whereas the other guys had northern accents. "Don't y'all go blaming us for what happened to your 

friend! It's not our fault you kids-what are you, like 15?- were stupid enough to open up the back door of that truck you were in. And how did you guys even manage to get one of those trucks anyways?"

No one said a word, but once again I felt Shikamaru's glare on me. "Look now, " Mitch continued gently this time. "We're really sorry about Ino-truly we are, but it's important that we go to this party-the rest of our lives depend on it."

I nodded. "Thank you. Good luck." Mitch said.

The guys started to leave with mumbled good-byes and sorry's but Tenten called them back. "This party you're going to…what's so important about it?"

Quentin smiled. "Let's just say that we're looking for someone who can help us figure something out. Nice meeting you kids. Stay in school!" And then they walked out without a second glance.

"Stay in school!?" Naruto said while laughing. "That phrase is so over-rated and so over-used."

"Yeah! Totally man!" Kiba said.

In a way I kinda wondered who it was that was so important that could alter the rest of the guys' future's but my mind was so wrapped up around Ino that I couldn't really be bothered to think about anything else. "We really should call her parents guys." Hinata said quietly as she looked over at the door of the E.R.

"Yeah…but what if they sue us or something?" Kiba asked quietly.

"They won't." Tenten said sharply. "It's not our faults." She shook her head as if trying to make herself believe what she was saying.

"They won't sue you because it's not you're faults…but they'll sue me for agreeing to having the back door opened." I said, standing up, near tears. "And how the hell am I supposed to pay them if they win the case huh? I'm all alone by myself in that house and I'm friggin broke! I don't have anyone to take care of me." I was crying now. The tears felt warm against my face and I could taste the saltiness as it dripped into my mouth as I spoke."It's all my fault and don't even try to tell me otherwise. Shikamaru is the only one who seems to think that it's my fault and he's completely right. I'm to blame. ..What the hell was I thinking? God I'm stupid!" I yelled the last part as I ran out of the waiting room outside into the warm, sunny Florida air that I was accustomed to.

I couldn't stand being back in that waiting room with my friends, not when I knew that they blamed me for what happened to Ino. I stayed there for a while just calming myself down and taking deep breaths. "They won't sue you Sakura. Ino's parents won't sue you. They are nice people." I of course didn't believe what I was saying to myself. And apparently so did Sasuke.

"Do you really think that?" He said, walking over to me, looking concerned.

Oh crap! Of course the one time when Sasuke comes running after me is the time when I look like complete shit-my mascara smudged from crying, my hair a mess, my clothes rumpled, and bags underneath my eyes from not sleeping in a couple days. But strangely enough he didn't comment on how I looked. "Yes I do really think that." I said, taking a deep breath. I looked over at him. "Don't you?"

Sasuke crossed his arms and blew out air. "Well I'm not gonna give you all that bullshit that everyone has been telling you. So I think that in a way it is kinda your fault."

I nodded sadly. Even though I knew it was my fault, I just couldn't handle hearing someone actually say it to me. "But not completely. Naruto and Kiba are partially to blame for suggesting the idea in the first place. You're to blame for allowing them to open the door, and Ino is also to blame for being an idiot and sitting by the edge of the door while the truck was moving. So all in all, the blame is widespread and not just your fault. And I'm pretty sure Mr. Yamananka won't think of suing us-he owns a flower shop for God sakes. So stop beating yourself up about it. Anyone of us could have pulled Ino away from the edge before she fell, so all of us are to blame as well."

"Shikamaru doesn't see it that way." I said quietly as I wiped my eyes.

Sasuke shrugged. "He's smart Sakura. He knows it isn't only you're fault, but right now he's just looking for someone to blame and you just happen to be the best candidate."

I know he was trying to make me feel better but it wasn't really working. "Whatever you say Sasuke, whatever you say…"

**UGHHHHH!! I **_**hate **_**this chapter! I think this is like **_**the **_**worst chapter I have ever written! I'm sorry it's really short but I really don't want to write this story anymore. I'm just not into it anymore, you know? I know I said in the first chapter that this story would be my masterpiece, well it really isn't anymore. The story I'm currently writing for fiction press called "Out of the Ashes" really is my masterpiece—or at least it's my masterpiece until I write something better. Well anyways read and review peoples. Auwfvierdersane! (hey, I start with German, might as well end with German too, but once again I know I spelled it wrong.)**


	13. Hospital Break

**Well hello there everyone! Look who's been resurrected! Yes, yes. It's moi. I'm back from the dead. My good friend FluteFaerie has inspired me to pick up my pen and write this story again. But I'm sorry it's been like 8 months since I last updated. I think I made a mistake when writing the 11****th**** chapter. I don't think I should've made Ino fall out of the truck a 2****nd**** time. It causes issues such as "who's gonna pay the hospital bill" or "Where are Ino's parents?", but oh well. I'll see if I can try and write myself out of this. But oh my God I'm so rusty right now. I don't think this chapter will be up to par with the previous ones but oh well. On with the show!**

**I don't own Naruto**

"Are you guys all here for Ino Yamanaka?" A nurse asked us while clutching a clipboard to her chest as she exited the ER and walked over to us.

I cleared my throat. We had been sitting in the waiting next to the ER for hours now and no one has spoken so my voice was bound to be a little scratchy. "Yeah, we're all here for her."

"Is she alright?" Shikamaru asked.

The nurse smiled. "Yes, your friend is perfectly fine. No signs of any head trauma, concussion or swelling or internal bleeding or anything. Only a broken wrist from landing on it too hard and a few cuts and bruises on her head. Ino was very lucky I have to say."

"Oh thank God," Shikamaru said with a relieved sigh as he leaned back into his chair. I was relieved too but the feeling of guilt still hung over me like a bad case of B.O.

Everyone looked pretty relieved too. "Can we go see her?" Tenten asked the nurse.

"Yes, of course you can. But not for too long—she still needs her rest if she's going to be discharged in the morning. Follow me." The nurse said as she turned back into the ER.

We quickly followed the nurse into Ino's room. "Ino? You've got some visitors here to see you." The nurse said to Ino.

Ino sat up in her bed and smiled at us. "What took you guys so long?"

Everyone laughed and went up to hug her. "I swear to God Ino if you're ever so stupid again as to stand by the edge of the back of a truck while it's open and the truck is moving I will kill you," Neji said.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Oh come on Neji. You only live once right? A few cuts and bruises and a broken wrist are worth the thrill."

Shikamaru glared at her. "You think this is a joke?" he asked angrily.

Ino looked taken aback. "I was only kidding. Jeez Shikamaru."

"You could have died! Neji is totally right—if you ever do something that stupid again I will personally kill you!" Shikamaru said before storming out of the room.

Ino's mouth dropped as she stared at Shikamaru's retreating back. I can't say I blamed him for getting angry at Ino's joking around…Not after what she put us through those long hours in the waiting room…and definitely not after all that guilt I felt because of this accident.

"Can you believe him!?" Ino practically cried. "I was just kidding, you know? Trying to make light of the situation at hand."

"Well maybe you shouldn't then," Sasuke snapped. "He's been really worried about you…we all have," He admitted.

Ino sighed and slumped back into the pillows. "Alright, alright. I'm sorry. I'll be more serious the next time I fall out of a truck…Does anyone have my cell phone? I need to update my facebook status."

I rolled my eyes. Even after a near-fatal accident Ino was still the same facebook worshipping groupie I knew and loved. "Here," I said pulling out her cell phone that I picked up out of the truck, out of my pocket and handed it to her.

"Thanks," she said flipping her blond hair with one hand while reaching out to take the phone with her other hand.

As Ino began doing her thing on her phone I took the chance to fully examine the damage. It wasn't bad, just like the nurse had said. Her forehead was wrapped in white, gauze bandages and there were cuts along the side on her face that had scraped the ground. Those were covered with bandages too. There was also one ugly purple bruise below her left eye—it looked kinda like a black eye, which was pretty funny seeing as how Ino had never been in a fight her entire life, let alone have a black eye. Her right hand had a cast over it and I could see that Ino had already started doodling on it with a black sharpie.

"Alright. All done," Ino declared flipping her phone shut.

"Hey Ino…" Hinata asked quietly.

"Yeah Hinata?'

"What's today's date?"

"July 2nd…oh shit! Sakura!"

"Oh crap guys…" I trailed off. Oh shit was right! The post-it said to see the fireworks on the 4th of July. That was 2 days to go but Ino was supposed to be discharged tomorrow. Which meant that we only had less than one day to drive all the way from where we are currently to North Carolina. From Tallahassee to Raleigh it was about a 9 hour and a half drive, not mentioning traffic, stopping to eat or sleep, or any more…accidents. Plus even after we reached Raleigh we still had to find just where exactly we were going to see the fireworks—considering I wasn't given an address…which I wasn't.

"We gotta get out here if we're gonna make it to Raleigh in time," Kiba said to no one in particular.

"Yeah but Ino's not getting discharged until sometime tomorrow. I mean it's not as if we can break Ino out of here." Tenten pointed out.

All of a sudden Kiba and Naruto got one of those "light bulb" moments and turned to face each other with a smile. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking bro?" Kiba asked with a wide grin.

"I dunno dude but I do know what _I'm_ thinking!" Naruto said with an even wider smile.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I said, interrupting the two of them. "_I_ know what you guys are thinking and it's so _not_—"

Just then the nurse walked back in, cutting me off. "Alright which one of you is gonna pay the hospital bill?"

Oh holy fucking crappity-crap crap shit. No one moved or said anything. We all just stared at the nurse who just stared back at us.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kiba and Naruto nod at each other. A second passed with nothing happening…and then Naruto and Kiba ran over to Ino's bed and quickly pushed it towards the door while running. "MOOOOVE!!!!!!!!!" Naruto yelled and we all steered clear of the bed.

The nurse screamed at ran out of the room as Naruto and Kiba chased her out.

We could hear Ino's screams from down the hallway and the nurse yelling "Security!"

But the rest of us still in the room stood motionless. Shikamaru popped back into the room looking stunned. "Did Naruto and Kiba just…"

My mouth was hanging open so I just nodded. Shikamaru whipped out his video camera and hit record. And then all of a sudden we started chasing after them and Shikamaru was taping the entire thing.

Leave it up to Naruto and Kiba to start the illegal stuff—_again_! We made it out of Tallahassee with pure luck but escaping the hospitals clutches wouldn't be so easy—especially with these 5 big, burly guards on our tail.

"We are _so_ going to jail for this!" I yelled as we chased Naruto, Kiba, and Ino while the 5 guards chased us.

"No shit!" Sasuke yelled back as we rushed out of the hospital. We could see the truck parked across the street and Naruto and Kiba (who were a few feet away) were still pushing Ino on the bed towards the truck.

"Hurry up guys!" Kiba yelled at us as they pushed the bed into the road, ignoring the traffic and beeping horns.

"They are insane!" Tenten shrieked as a car almost hit them put Naruto and Kiba managed to swerve away in time.

"Hey! You kids!" One of the guards yelled from the hospital door to us.

While watching Naruto and Kiba it seemed as though we had stopped running. But before we could get away the guards ran up to us and grabbed us.

The only song going playing in my head right now was 'oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh holy fucking crap! We're going to jail!' And it was on repeat.

"Gentlemen," Neji started coolly, "let us go. I'm sure we can work something out."

The guard holding him and Hinata chuckled. "I don't think so. You stole a patient and hospital equipment"—the bed, I'm assuming—" and were planning on leaving without paying the bill. _That_ my friend _cannot_ be worked out."

I groaned. I so totally _did not_ want to be a juvenile delinquent. "Sasuke," Neji said turning to Sasuke, "I think we need to…_convince_ these men to let us go."

Sasuke smirked. "I think you're right Neji." Saying that Sasuke elbowed his and Tenten's captor in the groin and Neji did the same. Both guards crumpled in pain, freeing Sasuke, Neji, Tenten, and Hinata. Shikamaru and I looked at each other and did the same to our own captors. "Guys," I said looking at my friends, "let's do this."

They all nodded at me and I swear I heard a battle cry from somewhere and random, butt-kicking, action music from nowhere started playing. Then we all turned into cartoon ninja characters and started beating up our guards with our awesome karate skills and magic powers…_Not!_

But we did however manage to get away from the guards after kneeing them a couple times in their…ahem, _privates_.

When we got near to the side of the road we heard the guards swear and start chasing us again. "Oh shit!" I cried looking out on the on-coming traffic. The cars were zooming by us and there was no way there were gonna stop. I looked back. The guards—although they were limping—were gaining quickly.

"Oh what the hell!" Tenten yelled as she ran into the road expertly dodging cars. When she reached the other side of the road she, along with Naruto, Kiba, and Ino, started yelling at us to hurry up.

"On the count of 3..." Shikamaru said to us.

I gulped as I nodded. "1…2…3! Go!"

We ran like mad into the oncoming traffic. Thankfully we never got hit but a lot of cars did honk at us. But sadly, the guards had followed us into the road, determined not to let us get away.

"Shit. Quick everyone in the truck!" Naruto yelled as Sasuke opened up the back door which was thankfully still unlocked. As soon as the back door slid open All the boys raised Ino's bed into the truck. "Why didn't you guys just let me out of the bed.?" Ino asked once safely inside.

"Oh." Naruto said running his hand through his hair, "We didn't think. It was a spur of the moment kind of thing."

I snorted. "I'll say."

"No time for small talk—the guards are still on our tail!" Tenten said pointing at the guards who were in the middle of the road.

Not thinking, I grabbed Hinata's hand and ran to the front of the truck while everyone else pilled in back. I opened up the passenger seat door and pushed Hinata into the truck as she squealed. Forcing her to move into the driver's seat, I entered the truck behind Hinata. Shutting the door behind me I yelled, "DRIVE!"

"BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW TO!!" She yelled back.

I smacked myself in the forehead. "Shit sorry. I wasn't thinking when I grabbed your hand—"

A loud banging at my door cut me off. I looked out the window and there were the guards grinning up at me. I paled. They had us.

"FLOOR IT!" Naruto yelled from the back.

Hinata (and everyone else ) screamed as she pressed down hard on the gas pedal and we were propelled into the road, accidentally hitting the guard at my window. The guard dropped like a fly. Hinata braked sharply. "OH MY GOD!!! DID I KILL HIM!?!?" I looked out my window and screamed as the guard popped back in front of my window blood dripping down his face, scaring the shit out of me.

"GO, GO, GO!!!" Kiba yelled.

And Hinata floored it again and began racing onto the highway…while going the wrong way.

"WE'RE GOING THE WRONG FUCKING WAY!!" I screamed at her.

"I'M SORRY!!!" Hinata screamed back at me, starting to cry. The oncoming cars beeped like crazy at us as they swerved out of our way.

But not only were we driving the wrong way, but we weren't even going in a straight line—we were swerving left and right like there was no tomorrow.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE, WE'RE GONNA DIE, WE'RE GONNA DIE!!!!" Ino yelled from the back as her bed slammed this way and that in the back.

Tenten and Sasuke were screaming profanities while Shikamaru was just staring bug-eyed but still taping everything. The only ones getting any pleasure from this were—of course—Naruto and Kiba. The two of them were head-banging in the back while whooping. "Hell yeah! You rock Hinata!" Naruto screamed.

And even though Hinata was screaming and crying at the same time I could still see her blush.

I sighed. It was obvious that Hinata had a crush on Naruto. They would've made a good couple in my opinion if Naruto wasn't so dense and figured it out.

We continued going the wrong way until—after fearing for our lives for too long—I grabbed hold of the wheel and skillfully turned it around into the right lane. The only issue was that there was one of those cement barrier thingies that separates the lanes and since Hinata's foot was still glued to the gas, we plowed on right through the barrier.

"HOLY SHIT THAT WAS AWESOME!" Naruto yelled, coming up to the front as chunks of cement flew past us.

Hearing Naruto's voice Hinata turned around. I may not have been able to drive but I did know this—1st rule of driving: Keep your eyes on the road.

The truck was headed for the edge of the road—where the trees were. "HINATA!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.

Hinata turned her head back towards the road, just in time to see us crash off the road, into the trees…and down the forest-covered ravine.

**Dun dun dun! So there you have it! My comeback chapter. I hope it was okay. Sakura's witty comments are kinda gone seeing as how I'm not really eased back into writing this yet but in time it'll be better. Anyways read and review! Ciao! **


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